Pentastomid infection in Philodryas nattereri Steindachner, 1870 and Oxybelis aeneus (Wagler, 1824) (Squamata: Colubridae) in a caatinga of northeastern Brazil

Abstract

The relationship between pentastomids and two Colubridae species, Phillodryas nattereri Steindachner, 1870 and Oxybelis aeneus (Wagler, 1824), were investigated in the federal government's reserve Estação Ecológica do Seridó (ESEC, Seridó) situated at lat 6° 35'-40' S and long 37° 15'-20 W in the municipality of Serra Negra do Norte, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Northeast Brazil and run by IBAMA (the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources). Throughout 2005, 26 specimens of snakes, 13 of P. nattereri and 13 of O. aeneus were collected. After anatomical dissection and laboratorial examination of the snakes' respiratory tracts, P. nattereri was found to be parasitized by two species of pentastomids: Cephalobaena tetrapoda Heymons, 1922 with a prevalence of 30.8% and a mean intensity of infection of 51.5 ± 32.7 (range 3-147), and Raillietiella furcocerca (Diesing, 1863) which had a prevalence of 7.7% and a mean intensity of infection of 1.0. Only one female of O. aeneus was found to be infected by C. tetrapoda, with a prevalence of 7.7% and mean intensity of infection of 2.0. There was no significant relationship between size of snout-vent length (SVL) and intensity of infection in the specimens investigated here. The two individuals of P. nattereri infected by more than 40 specimens of pentastomids had their lungs completely infected including the pulmonary peritoneum and trachea. It is noteworthy that the hosts had their lung tissues partially destroyed with apparent haemorrhage, and the trabecular structure of their lungs was also destroyed. The contrasting rates of infection estimated here may be related to differences in foraging strategies, in diet, and habitat selection carried out by individuals of P. nattereri and O. aeneus.Keywords: Endoparasites, Cephalobaena, Raillietiella, neotropical region. Infecção por pentastomídeos em Philodryas nattereri

Prevalence and intensity of infection by Raillietiella gigliolii Hett, 1924 (Pentastomida) in Amphisbaena alba Linnaeus, 1758 and A. vermicularis Wagler, 1824 (Amphisbaenidae) from Northeastern Brazil

“…Our results demonstrate that R. gigliolii is not specific to A. alba. Similar results were presented in the study of Almeida et al (2007Almeida et al ( , 2008aAlmeida et al ( , 2008b for various species of snakes and lizards parasitised by Cephalobaena tetrapoda and Raillietiella mottae respectively. The snakes and lizards studied by these authors demonstrated overlapping diets, similar to that seen for A. alba and A. vermicularis in the present work.…”

“…Only A. alba demonstrated a prevalence level of 55.5% in the present study, but data obtained by Almeida et al (2006Almeida et al ( , 2007Almeida et al ( , 2008aAlmeida et al ( , 2008b indicated that pentastomids are not "core" species in lizards and snakes.…”

Pentastomid, Raillietiella mottae Almeida, Freire and Lopes, 2008, infecting lizards in an area of caatinga, northeast, Brazil

“…Almeida et al (2008b) stated that together with morphological evidence, such evaluation would reinforce the proposition for the existence of a new species. However, data obtained by Almeida et al (2006a;2008a;2008b) indicates that two species of pentastomids, Cephalobaena tetrapoda Heymons, 1922 and Raillietiella furcocerca, should be generalists because of their recorded variety of hosts. Anjos et al (2008) reported only one female of gecko, H. mabouia, parasitized by R. mottae.…”

“…Recent publications have included evaluations on infection rates, prevalence, and mean intensity of infection in studies of snakes, amphisbaenians and lizards of the northeastern region of Brazil (Dias et al, 2005;Almeida et al, 2006a;Almeida et al 2006b;Almeida et al 2007;Almeida et al 2008a;Almeida et al 2008b;Anjos et al, 2008), nevertheless, only four lizard species were investigated. Dias et al (2005) reported a likely new species of Raillietiella aff.…”

Helminths of the Lizard Salvator merianae (Squamata, Teiidae) in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil

“…Infections by parasite influence the control of the population of the their hosts, causing damage to the infected organs (Almeida et al, 2008), alterations in the functioning of metabolism (Dare and Forbes, 2008), changes in sexual selection (Kose and Møller, 1999), diminution of reproductive performance (Hudson and Greenman, 1998) and modifications in the interspecific competition between hosts (Lafferty, 1999) and in predator-prey relations (Booth et al, 1993).…”