A new species ofPseudoacanthocephalus(Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the guttural toad,Sclerophrys gutturalis(Bufonidae), introduced into Mauritius, with comments on the implications of the introductions of toads and their parasites into the UK

Abstract

Pseudoacanthocephalus goodmani n. sp. is described from faecal pellets collected from Sclerophrys gutturalis (Power, 1927), the guttural toad. The species is characterized by a suite of characters, including a proboscis armature of 14–18 longitudinal rows of 4–6 hooks with simple roots, lemnisci longer than the proboscis receptacle, equatorial testes, a cluster of elongated cement glands and eggs without polar prolongations of the middle membrane 72.6–85.8 long. The toad had been accidentally translocated from Mauritius to the UK in a tourist's luggage and survived a washing machine cycle. The guttural toad was introduced into Mauritius from South Africa in 1922 and the cane toad, Rhinella marina (Linneaus, 1758), from South America, between 1936 and 1938. It seems most likely, therefore, that P. goodmani was introduced, with the guttural toad, from South Africa. The cane toad is host to the similar species, Pseudoacanthocephalus lutzi, from the Americas, but P. lutzi has not been recorded from places where the cane toad has been introduced elsewhere. Clearly, the guttural toad is a hardy and adaptable species, although it seems unlikely that it could become established in Northern Europe. Nevertheless, any accidental translocation of hosts poses the potential risk of introducing unwanted pathogens into the environment and should be guarded against.

Online news reports as a source of data on the occurrence and frequency of stowaway reptiles and amphibians entering Great Britain

“…None of the stowaways were identified as being likely to establish themselves in Great Britain. Nevertheless, spillover into native populations could have disastrous consequences, furthermore stowaways potentially harbour parasites that are new to science and so have as yet unknown consequences (Smales et al, 2020).…”

Phylomitogenomic Analyses Provided Further Evidence for the Resurrection of the Family Pseudoacanthocephalidae (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchida)

“…Echinorhynchida is the largest order in the phylum Acanthocephala, containing more than 470 nominal species, which mainly parasitize teleost fishes but also occur in amphibians and reptiles [ 1 , 5 , 26 , 27 ]. Amin (2013) listed 11 families in the Echinorhynchida, including Arhythmacanthidae, Cavisomatidae, Echinorhynchidae, Fessisentidae, Heteracanthocephalidae, llliosentidae, Isthmosacanthidae, Pomphorhynchidae, Rhadinorhynchidae, Transvenidae, and Sauracanthorhynchidae.…”

A series of unlikely events: from washing machine to new species

“…The toad was quickly packaged in a temporary quarantine facility (a plastic sweet container with damp paper towels as a substrate) following guidance from JWW, before MJG collected the toad from the confused couple. During the time that the toad was in our care, it shed a number of parasitic worms which were later confirmed to be a new species (Smales et al, 2020). The toad was identified as a female as it did not respond to call playbacks of its own species, trialled on multiple occasions.…”

“…In total, 27 whole or partial parasitic worms were shed. These were later identified as a new species of the family Echinorhynchidae and named Pseudoacanthocephalus goodmani, after MJG (Smales et al, 2020). This species of this family are known to live in the intestines of fish, amphibians and reptiles.…”