Checklist of helminths from lizards and amphisbaenians (Reptilia, Squamata) of South America

Abstract

Abstract:A comprehensive and up to date summary of the literature on the helminth parasites of lizards and amphisbaenians from South America is herein presented. One-hundred eighteen lizard species from twelve countries were reported in the literature harboring a total of 155 helminth species, being none acanthocephalans, 15 cestodes, 20 trematodes and 111 nematodes. Of these, one record was from Chile and French Guiana, three from Colombia, three from Uruguay, eight from Bolivia, nine from Surinam, 13 from Paraguay, 12 from Venezuela, 27 from Ecuador, 17 from Argentina, 39 from Peru and 103 from Brazil. The present list provides host, geographical distribution (with the respective biome, when possible), site of infection and references from the parasites. A systematic parasite-host list is also provided.

Nematodes associated with Iguana iguana (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata, Iguanidae) in Semi-arid areas of Northeastern Brazil

“…infects various groups of vertebrates (Anderson, 2000), principally amphibians and reptiles throughout the Americas (Espinoza-Jiménez et al, 2007;Silva et al, 2008). In Brazil, unidentified species of Physaloptera have been recorded in the following species of lizards: Gekkonidae, Gymnophthalmidae, Hoplocercidae, Mabuyidae, Polychrotidae, Teiidae and Tropiduridae (Ávila and Silva, 2010). The specimens of Physaloptera we found were not identified to the species level due to the sample examined consisting only of individuals in the juvenile stages.…”

“…The species of Atractis Dujardin, has been reported infecting Testudinae (Salizar and Sanchez, 2007) and carnivorous lizards (Goldberg and Bursey, 2000;Ávila and Silva, 2010) (Ávila and Silva, 2010).…”

“…Onchocercidae consist a nematode family composed for Macdonaldius Khana, 1933, Oswaldofilaria Travassos, 1933, Piratuba Lent and Freitas, 1921and Piratuboides Bain and Sulahian, 1974 which infecting essentials carnivorous reptiles (Ávila and Silva, 2010).…”

“…Parasitological investigations into these iguanids have shown that they host a diverse group of parasites, including nematodes (Breves et al, 2011;Lopes et al, 2006;Sarmiento et al, 1999;Freitas and Lent, 1937;Dyer et al, 1999), trematodes (Ávila and Silva, 2011;Freitas and Lent, 1937), cestodes (Ávila and Silva, 2010), and mites and ticks (Dantas-Torres et al, 2008).…”

Digeneans and acanthocephalans of birds from Formosa Province, Argentina

“…Moreover, this author believes that virgule-cercariae that emerged from Pomacea canaliculata (Lamarck) (as Ampularia c.) could correspond to the metacercariae found in the larvae of M. glauca. Digiani (2002) and Amato and Amato (2006) (Vizcaíno, 1993;Torres & Puga, 1996;Puga & Torres, 1999;Amato et al,2003;Iannacone, 2003;Lamas & Lunaschi, 2009;Ávila & Silva, 2010;dos Santos & Amato, 2010;Hamann et al, 2012;Zaracho et al, 2012;González et al, 2013). Then, T. caudatus probably acquire infestations of adult acanthocephalan by consumption of amphibious or reptiles infected with cystacanths.…”