The Dilepididae
Choanotaenia atopa Rausch & McKown, 1994
The Dilepididae is in a group of tapeworms with a scolex that has four suckers and an armed rostellum. The reproductive organs are usually single per proglottid. The group as a whole is in typically found to parasitize birds and rodent. a large number of genera are considered as members of this family of tapeworms. One species has been reported from cats (Rausch & McKown, 1994)
a cat from Manhattan, Kansas, USA, was found to be passing the eggs of an unidentified tapeworm species. The eggs are rather thin shelled, subspherical, and 45 x 56 ?m in diameter, with a visible hexacanth embryo. The cat was treated with drocabil (18 mg/kg) about four months later, and the adult tapeworms recovered. The tapeworms passed by the cat had a maximum length of 7 cm. There are two rows of rostellar hooks, and a total of 22 hooks per rostellum. The specimens were described as Choanotaeniaatopa, and it was presumed that the normal host was a small rodent. It was thought that the cat had probably become infected by eating the insect or other invertebrate that serves as the intermediate host of this parasite.
Rausch RL, McKown RD. 1994. Choanotaeniaatopa n. sp. (Cestoda: Dilepididae) from a domestic cat in Kansas. J Parasitol 80:317-320.