Abstract:
A new species of the genus Molineus Cameron, 1923 was recovered from feral cats, Felis catus
Linnaeus, 1758, in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Because of a caudal bursa with rays of the
2-1-2 type, but with the extremities of rays 4 nearer those of rays 3 than those of rays 5, the new species
is closely related to seven Neotropical Molineus spp., four parasitic in Primates, two parasitic in
Mustelidae and one a parasite of Procyonidae. Amongst these species, only Molineus barbaris
Cameron, 1936, a parasite of Tayra barbara (Mustelidae) from Trinidad and Molineus vexillarius (Dunn,
1961), a parasite of Tamarinus nigricollis (Primates) from Peru have rays 4 longer than two-thirds the
length of rays 3, like the new species. However, the new species is differentiated from the other two
in that rays 9 arise at the level of the bifurcation of the dorsal ray and not after the division as is the
case with M. barbaris and M. vexillarius.
