REDESCRIPTION OF BOLBOSOMA-CAPITATUM (ACANTHOCEPHALA, POLYMORPHIDAE) FROM FALSE KILLER WHALE OFF VANCOUVER-ISLAND, WITH TAXONOMIC RECONSIDERATION OF THE SPECIES AND SYNONYMY OF BOLBOSOMA-PHYSETERIS

Many individuals of the acanthocephalan Bolbosoma capitatum von Linsto w (1880) Porta, 1908 were collected from a stranded false killer whale , Pseudorca crassidens (Owen, 1846), off Vancouver Island, British Col umbia, Canada, in 1989. This material provided the source of the first comprehensive description of the species, whose identity has been in dispute for over 100 yr. Many specimens collected from whales in 18 lo cations in the Mediterranean and off Faeroe Islands, North and South A merica, Caribbean, Africa, Great Britain, Japan, and Australia were ex amined and determined to belong to B. capitatum. Specimens of Bolbosom a physeteris Gubanov, 1952 collected from the same type host and local ity listed in the original description were also determined to be B. c apitatum, making B. physeteris a junior synonym. The most important de termining characters are proboscis armature and variations in the spin ation of the area between the anterior and posterior cephalic bulbs.