Ecological release in lizard endoparasites from the Atlantic Forest, northeast of the Neotropical Region

Abstract

We compared lizard endoparasite assemblages between the Atlantic Forest and naturally isolated forest enclaves to test the ecological release hypothesis, which predicts that host specificity should be lower (large niche breadth) and parasite abundance should be greater for parasites from isolated forest enclaves (poor assemblages) than for parasites from the coastal Atlantic Forest (rich assemblages). Parasite richness per specimen showed no difference between the isolated and non-isolated areas. Parasite abundance did not differ between the isolated and non-isolated areas but showed a positive relationship with parasite richness considering all areas (isolated and non-isolated). Furthermore, host specificity was positively related to parasite richness. Considering that host specificity is inversely proportional to the host range infected by a parasite, our results indicate that in assemblages with greater parasite richness, parasites tend to infect a smaller range of hosts than do those in simple assemblages. In summary, our study partially supports the ecological release hypothesis: in assemblages with greater parasite richness, lizard parasites from Atlantic Forest are able to increase their parasite abundance (per host), possibly through facilitated infection; however, the amplitude of infected hosts only expands in poor assemblages (lower parasite richness).

Helminth fauna of Norops fuscoauratus (D’Orbigny, 1837) (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in the Atlantic Forest, northeastern Brazil

“…(D= 1) and Strongyluris oscari (D= 1). Already in anoles of Murici (AL), we obtained Brito et al (2014a, b), Araújo-Filho et al (2014) for the populations from the semi-arid; Cabral et al (2018), Amorim andÁvila (2019) andSantos Mesquita et al (2020) for humid forest ("Brejos-de-altitude") and Almeida-Gomes et al (2012), Barreto-Lima et al (2012) and Teixeira et al (2020) for lizards from the Atlantic Forest. In addition to these contributions, the descriptive study by Albuquerque et al (2012) should be highlighted.…”

“…To N. fuscoauratus of the Amazon Forest, this nematode is also a relatively common parasitic association Silva, 2010, 2013) and reached different prevalence rates, such that the presented in Bursey et al (2005) (4%) and Goldberg et al (2006a) (28.6% and 38%, respectively). Teixeira et al (2020) also register this parasite in the Atlantic Forest of Northeast Brazil with a 50% prevalence (N=7). Its occurrence in the two populations of N. fuscoauratus in this study only confirms the extent of the parasite-host relationship, which was more evident in lizards from Murici (AL) (P=17.85%) compared to the CIMNC (PE) (P=2.08%).…”

“…This study was conducted in the Amazon rainforest as a collaboration to investigate the helminth fauna associated with lizards, including additional research on Norops fuscoauratus as the host of the nematode Physaloptera retusa. Avila and Silva (2013), Teixeira et al (2020) andSantos Mesquita et al (2020) also present important data on parasites of this lizard.…”

Parasitic infection patterns in Coleodactylus meridionalis (Squamata: Sphaerodactylidae) from Atlantic Forest fragments, northeast of the Neotropical Region

“…Belonging to the family Sphaerodactylidae, lizards of the Coleodactylus genus Parker, 1926 are very small, with some species reaching an average of 32 mm in total length (Goncalves et al, 2012). They can be found in areas of the Amazon rainforest (Avila-Pires, 1995), Atlantic forest (Teixeira et al, 2020), including mesic regions located in the Caatinga and the Cerrado (Colli et al, 2002;Ribeiro et al, 2013). However, most studies on Cole-odactylus are aimed to test systematic and phylogenetic hypotheses (Correia et al, 2016), are related with surveys about their geographic distributions (Ribeiro et al, 2013), followed by scarce records on food composition and spatial niche (Werneck et al, 2009).…”

“…However, most studies on Cole-odactylus are aimed to test systematic and phylogenetic hypotheses (Correia et al, 2016), are related with surveys about their geographic distributions (Ribeiro et al, 2013), followed by scarce records on food composition and spatial niche (Werneck et al, 2009). In addition, only two studies present simple surveys on endoparasites infecting these lizards (Ávila & Silva, 2013;Teixeira et al, 2020), but without investigating, if life history traits, such as sex, body mass, size, and host diet, infl uence their infection patterns.…”