A redescription of Acanthocephalus bufonis (Shipley, 1903) Southwell and Macfie, 1925 (Acanthocephala: Echinorhynchidae) from the black-spotted toad, Bufo melanostictus, from Bogor, Indonesia

Abstract

Acanthocephalus bufonis (Shipley, 1903) Southwell and Macfie, 1925 is redescribed on the basis of specimens collected from the black-spotted toad, Bufo melanostictus Schneider, 1799, from Indonesia. The material collected by Southwell and Macfie in 1925 and by Petrochenko in 1953 is not considered conspecific with that collected by Shipley in 1903. The species described by Petrochenko is given the name Acanthocephalus breviprostatus nom. nov.; that of Southwell and Macfie is unnamed until a more adequate description is produced.

Acanthocephala from Amphibians in China with the Description of a New Species of Pseudoacanthocephalus (Echinorhynchida)

“…Joyeux and Baer (1935) reported 5-6 hooks in each longitudinal row for this species collected from the type host (Bufo melanostictus Schneider, 1799) at Tonkin, Vietnam. Our specimens agree fully with their description and illustrations, and there is no appreciable difference from the redescription of the species by Kennedy (1982).…”

“…Pseudoacanthocephalus bufonis is a long known parasite across southeastern Asia (Shipley, 1903;Joyeux and Baer, 1935;Schmidt, 1971;Uchida, 1975;Jain and Gupta, 1981;Kennedy, 1982;Khan and Ip, 1986;Vashetko and Siddikov, 1999;Bursey et al, 2005) to Hawaii, where it probably was introduced (Barton and Pichelin, 1999). It is not surprising, therefore, that it was abundant in amphibians in our survey in China.…”

“…This would be equivalent to 3-4 hooks in each longitudinal row instead of the 5-6 present in our specimens from China. It is impossible to tell from his illustrations whether the proboscides of Shipley's specimens were evaginated fully, and type specimens are unavailable (Kennedy, 1982) for study. Joyeux and Baer (1935) reported 5-6 hooks in each longitudinal row for this species collected from the type host (Bufo melanostictus Schneider, 1799) at Tonkin, Vietnam.…”

“…At the first use of the generic name, Pseudoacanthocephalus, Petrochenko (1956) did not define it as a new genus. However, later in the same volume (Petrochenko, 1956), he gave characters for Pseudoacanthocephalus, designated it a new genus, and specifically transferred 4 species to it, including Acanthocephalus bufonis (Shipley, 1903) Southwell and Macfie, 1925. The nomenclature is further complicated because Kennedy (1982) argued that specimens identified by Petrochenko (1953) as P. bufonis from toads in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not conspecific with the species described by Shipley (1903). Kennedy (1982) proposed the new name Acanthocephalus breviprostatus for the Soviet specimens.…”

“…However, later in the same volume (Petrochenko, 1956), he gave characters for Pseudoacanthocephalus, designated it a new genus, and specifically transferred 4 species to it, including Acanthocephalus bufonis (Shipley, 1903) Southwell and Macfie, 1925. The nomenclature is further complicated because Kennedy (1982) argued that specimens identified by Petrochenko (1953) as P. bufonis from toads in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are not conspecific with the species described by Shipley (1903). Kennedy (1982) proposed the new name Acanthocephalus breviprostatus for the Soviet specimens. As Petrochenko (1956) was referencing these specimens when he assigned P. bufonis as the type species, Pseudoacanthocephalus breviprostatus Kennedy, 1982, should replace P. bufonis as the type species of Pseudoacanthocephalus for systematists who concur that P. bufonis and P. breviprostatus constitute distinct species.…”