Morphological study of Contracaecum magnicollare (Nematoda, Anisakidae) from Anous minutus (Aves, Laridae)

Contracaecum magnicollare Johnston & Mawson, 1941 is redescribed from some of the paratypes and from new material collected in the Chesterfield Islands, New-Caledonia (39.50δ N, 75.21° W). The characters and measurements of the studied specimens are very closely related to those of C. variegatum (Rudolphi, 1809), as described by Hartwich (1964), except for the tips of the interlabia which are bifurcate in the description of Hartwich and are simple in C. magnicollare. Consequently, this study invalidates the conclusion of Hartwich (1964), in regarding C. magnicollare as a synonym of C. variegatum.