We examine how form and usage shape the processing of the Spanish gender-inclusive morpheme -e. Within usage-based models, repeated exposure strengthens representations, allowing high-frequency forms to be retrieved holistically while infrequent forms remain compositionally demanding. To test these predictions, we compare the processing of the relatively frequent pronominal quantifier tod-e-s (‘everyone-inc-pl’) with its masculine counterpart tod-o-s (‘everyone-m-pl’) and plural inclusive adjectives such as content-e-s (‘happy-inc-pl’) with masculine forms such as content-o-s (‘happy-m-pl’). First-language Spanish speakers completed a word-by-word self-paced reading task in which these forms referred to mixed-gender groups, followed by a sociolinguistic questionnaire. The results showed no reliable processing cost for todes relative to todos at the precritical, critical and postcritical regions. By contrast, inclusive adjectives elicited longer reading times than masculine adjectives at the critical word and spillover region. This cost appeared across most participant groups but was absent among those reporting the highest use of inclusive language. A participant-level bootstrap comparison showed that the processing burden was reliably greater for inclusive adjectives than for todes. These findings indicate that inclusive morphology is not processed uniformly across grammatical contexts. Instead, grammatical categories and individual experience modulate entrenchment, suggesting adult speakers can incorporate emergent morphology into real-time processing routines through exposure.

Two nematode species parasitizing different developmental stages of the Indian rice frog Fejervarya kawamurai collected from Kasugai City, Japan, were examined using an integrative taxonomic approach combining morphology, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and molecular analyses. Tadpoles of F. kawamurai were found to be infected exclusively by the oxyuroid nematode Gyrinicola japonicus, whereas adult frogs harboured a cosmocercoid nematode representing a new species of Cosmocerca, namely C. kasugaiensis n. sp. Detailed morphological observations revealed diagnostic characters of the new species, including the presence of well-developed lateral alae, equal spicules distinctly longer than the gubernaculum, five pairs of precloacal plectanes surrounded by incomplete circles of tubercles, and somatic papillae in both sexes. Molecular analyses based on nuclear 28S rDNA, internal transcribed spacer (ITS), and mitochondrial cox1 sequences showed no intraspecific variation among individuals of C. kasugaiensis n. sp., and consistently supported its distinctiveness from its congeners by Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP) and Bayesian inference analyses. The redescription of G. japonicus incorporates new features, including cephalic structures and egg morphological details revealed by SEM. This study also provides the ITS and cox1 sequences for this species for the first time. Morphological and molecular analyses confirmed the distinct species position within Gyrinicola.

During an oceanographic campaign led by the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement to explore the biodiversity of Walters Shoal Seamount in the Indian Ocean, a new species of Morgana was discovered. Until now, this genus was monotypic with the only known species described from shallow waters off São Paulo, south-eastern Brazil: M. bisetosa Nogueira & Amaral, 2001. This new deep-sea species, M. waltershoalensis sp. nov., is characterised by the absence of branchiae, the notopodia beginning from segment 4 and the neuropodia from the 6th, a great number of segments with notopodia (n = 53), and the presence of a pair of large nephridial papillae dorsally, on segment 3. This species differs from M. bisetosa by the absence of eyespots, the shape of both noto- and neurochaetae and by the presence of a large pair nephridial papillae on the third segment. Following this study, the boundaries of the genus have been modified, particularly with regard to the number of segments with notopodia, the presence of eyespots and the large papilla on segment 3.

A new species of the genus Sychnotylenchus, S. golestanicus sp. n., is described and illustrated from northern Iran. The new species is characterised by a body length of 595–831 μm, a continuous lip region, a very slender stylet 7–10 μm long with small but distinct knobs, a lateral field with six to eight incisures, a heart-shaped median bulb with a refractive valve, and an excretory pore located at or anterior to the median bulb. The crustaformeria (eggshell-forming zone) consists of 16 cells arranged in 4 longitudinal rows of 4 large, rounded cells each, with the anterior part expanded and functioning as a spermatheca. Females have the vulva situated at 88.5–90.3% of body length, a post-vulval uterine sac measuring 1.4–2.2 times the vulval body diameter, and a short, broad tail with a truncate to slightly flattened terminus, usually showing a shallow terminal depression and lacking a mucro. Males possess smoothly curved spicules 16–21 μm long, a simple gubernaculum approximately one-third of the spicule length, and broad peloderan bursal alae. The new species is morphologically most similar to S. hibisci, but differs from the mentioned species by a combination of characters including the shape of the female tail, the number of lateral field incisures, the structure of the crustaformeria, the length of the post-vulval uterine sac, and the position of the excretory pore. Phylogenetic analysis based on 18S rDNA sequences placed S. golestanicus sp. n. within a well-supported clade (posterior probability = 1.00) comprising S. hibisci and other Sychnotylenchus species, supporting its placement within the genus Sychnotylenchus. The congruence between morphological and molecular evidence supports the recognition of S. golestanicus sp. n. as a distinct species. The present study also highlights the need for additional molecular markers and further integrative taxonomic studies, potentially including TEM investigations, to clarify the taxonomic significance of the crustaformeria and better resolve phylogenetic relationships within the Sychnotylenchinae.

Cestode larvae of Anthobothrium sp. were collected from the caecum and stomach of the common squid Loligo vulgaris Lamarck, 1798 (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) in Tunisian waters (Bay of Bizerte and Gulf of Tunis), with the highest prevalence recorded in the Gulf of Tunis (52.94%). These specimens were morphologically characterised and compared to previously described Anthobothrium larvae from other hosts. Molecular analysis using 28S ribosomal DNA (rDNA), combined with phylogenetic reconstruction (maximum likelihood and pairwise distances), revealed that the sequences cluster with adult specimens from several elasmobranch species. These definitive hosts include Carcharhinus obscurus and Carcharhinus limbatus, which are common in Tunisian waters, thereby providing new insights into the potential life cycle of this parasite. Loligo vulgaris represents a new host record for Anthobothrium sp. larvae and appears to be its preferred cephalopod host in the Mediterranean. Finally, a comprehensive checklist of metacestodes recorded in L. vulgaris is provided.

A new nematode population of the genus Ficophagus was recovered from figs of Ficus amplissima from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India. It is described herein as Ficophagus siddiqii n. sp., distinguished among all known species of the genus by its slender, cylindrical female body and presence of four faint lateral incisures at mid-body, with the outermost pair being the most prominent; a short post-uterine sac (PUS; 5.0–10 μm), a secretory-excretory pore situated near the lips, amoeboid sperm, and three pairs of subventral papillae on the male tail. Conoid tail in both sexes; the male tail tip broadly rounded without mucro and female tail tip pointed or spike-like projection. Gubernaculum absent, rose-thorn-shaped spicules with relatively high condylus – rounded to truncate. This species is also distinguished by its biogeography and host plant, as it is collected from Ficus amplissima. Further, it is characterised by molecular sequences of 18S SSU, 28S D2–D3, Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I (COI), and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS). Molecular comparisons of the Indian population of Ficophagus siddiqii n. sp. with other Ficophagus species using D2–D3, SSU, COI, and ITS sequences revealed a clear separation of Ficophagus siddiqii n. sp. from other Ficophagus species.

A new entomopathogenic nematode, Steinernema hattingi n. sp., was isolated during a survey in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. Morphological and morphometric traits place the species in the glaseri-group, characterised by large infective juveniles (IJs) with average body length exceeding 1000 μm. The IJs of S. hattingi n. sp. have a mean body length of 1059 μm, lateral fields composed of eight equally spaced ridges (nine incisures) at mid-body (formula 2, 6, 8, 4, 2), a relatively short tail (c ratio 16 on average) with a hyaline region occupying approximately 45% of its length, and are relatively slender (a ratio 33 on average). Male spicules are curved, brown, with a pointed tip and an elongate manubrium (length/width ratio 1.8:1); male tails are non-mucronate or occasionally with a short papilla-like mucron in second-generation males. First-generation females have a moderately protruding, slightly asymmetrical vulva without postanal swelling, whereas second-generation females display a protruding, asymmetrical vulva and a slightly developed postanal swelling. The species is further characterised by sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and partial 28S rDNA (D2–D3) regions. Phylogenetic analyses place S. hattingi n. sp. within the Khoisanae clade of the glaseri-group.

This study reports the presence of Kudoa neothunni in yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) landed in Portugal. The parasite was detected in fish harvested from the Indian and Pacific Oceans but not in the Atlantic Ocean specimens. Muscle samples collected from specimens were examined macroscopically and microscopically for parasitic infections. While no Kudoa cysts were observed macroscopically, microscopic analysis revealed K. neothunni in 10 fish (5 each from the Pacific and Indian Oceans), with a prevalence of 20.8% and 20%, respectively. Histological examinations confirmed the presence of Kudoa cysts in infected muscle tissue. Morphological analyses showed stellate spores with 6 polar capsules, and significant differences in spore length and polar capsule dimensions were found between isolates from the 2 oceanic regions. However, phylogenetic analysis based on small and large ribosomal subunit sequences indicated that both spores were consistent with K. neothunni and showed high (100%) similarity to previously published GenBank sequences. These results contribute to the current knowledge of K. neothunni occurrence in yellowfin tuna and indicate that infected specimens originating from the Indian and Pacific Oceans enter the European seafood market. Given that some Kudoa infections can induce post-mortem myoliquefaction and adversely affect fillet quality, this should be considered a potential concern.

Entamoeba bovis is a common intestinal amoeba of ruminants, yet molecularly confirmed data from Europe remain limited. We investigated the occurrence, morphology and genetic variability of E. bovis in Italian domestic and wild ruminants and developed a rapid species-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Faecal samples from calves (n = 45), goats (n = 26), sheep (n = 11) and Italian red deer Cervus elaphus italicus (n = 25) were examined by sediment microscopy and iodine staining. Amoebic stages were detected in 57% of bovine, 61.5% of caprine, 100% of ovine and 56% of red deer samples. Across hosts, cysts were consistently uninucleate and displayed typical E. bovis morphology, including frequent chromatoid bodies and an iodophilic glycogen mass. Representative positives were sequenced at the 18S rRNA locus (∼800 bp), confirming E. bovis (98.6–99.8% identity; 100% query coverage). Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis placed all Italian isolates within the E. bovis clade and indicated a shared lineage across domestic ruminants and red deer, with no segregation by host or ecological setting. A newly designed E. bovis-specific PCR (375 bp) consistently yielded a single amplicon in all sequenced positives, supporting its use for rapid screening without sequencing.

The effect of sound change and analogy upon inflectional paradigms has been traditionally described through Sturtevant’s Paradox, which states that sound change is regular but generates irregularity, whereas analogy is irregular but generates regularity. While past work has explored trends in sound change and analogy qualitatively, quantitative investigation with large data sets remains underexploited. We tackle this by exploring the effects of sound change and analogy from Latin to French in large etymologically paired inflected lexicons containing the complete paradigms of 310 verbs with 11,593 total forms. We employ a novel method combining the automated application of historical sound changes and entropy-based quantitative analysis to examine separately the effects of sound change and analogy. The results confirm the role of some oft-cited predictors of analogy like token frequency and morphological regularity, but offer no support for others like markedness. Results also confirm the complexifying role of sound change, and the simplifying role of analogy, on aspects of morphological complexity like the number of inflection classes and the amount of allomorphy, but suggest that these forces have no comparable effect on more modern measures of complexity like average conditional entropies between inflected forms.

Acquiring morphology poses a considerable challenge in second language acquisition (SLA), highlighting the need to explore methods that facilitate this task for L2 learners. One potential facilitator is salience, which is theorized to aid language acquisition by directing learners’ attention to certain linguistic elements. To empirically investigate the impact of one type of salience, perceptual salience, a text-based eye-tracking experiment was conducted with 68 L1 Dutch speakers who read 240 sentences in Englishti, an English-based semi-artificial language featuring perceptually high-salient (-ulp) and low-salient (-o) morphemes according to length. Learning context was manipulated with participants being either assigned to an intentional or an incidental paradigm. The task consisted of two phases: a learning phase involving input flooding of the target morphemes followed by content-related questions, and a testing phase where participants completed a grammaticality judgment task on Englishti sentences, half of which were familiar from the learning phase and half of which were new. The results revealed a significant influence of salience, mediated by learning context and English proficiency, on fixation durations, thus empirically confirming the effect of perceptual salience on attention allocation in L2 morphology acquisition.

In this report, morphological and molecular characteristics are provided for two members of the subfamily Microphalloidea distributed in the south of the Russian Far East. Some of trematode specimens found in larvae of mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies and then experimentally reared to the adult stage in hamsters, according to their morphological features, belong to the species Acanthatrium ovatum previously recorded from Japanese bats. Molecular data has confirmed their membership in the family Lecithodendriidae and similarity to trematodes identified as Lecithodendriidae sp. F from Japan. The other specimens, experimentally reared in chickens, according to their morphological characteristics, meet the diagnostic criteria of the genus Parabascus. However, this species is not clustered with representatives of this taxon in the phylogenetic reconstruction based on 28S rRNA gene data. A molecular analysis has shown that it forms a single cluster with Pachypsolus irroratus and is a member of the family Pachypsolidae. It is here placed in the new genus Pseudoparabascus n. g. under the name Pseudoparabascus khotenovskii comb. n. The phylogenetic reconstructions based on two other markers, the cox1 mtDNA gene and the ITS2 rDNA region, have confirmed the assignment of these specimens obtained in both experiments to the above-considered taxonomic groups.