First report on cystacanths of Sphaerirostris lanceoides (Petrochenko, 1949) (Acanthocephala: Centrorhynchidae) from the Asiatic toad Bufo gargarizans Cantor (Amphibia: Anura) in China

Abstract

Everted cystacanths of Sphaerirostris lanceoides (Petrochenko, 1949) Golvan 1956 are reported from the Asiatic toad Bufo gargarizans Cantor (Amphibia: Anura) for the first time. The prevalence was 1.96% and the intensity ranged between 1.0-3.0 acanthocephalans. SEM observations revealed the morphology of the gonopore and the presence of a flat, bare region on the apical part of the proboscis. Moreover, S. lanceoides was characterised using molecular approaches by sequencing the ribosomal ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region and the mitochondrial cox1 gene. The resulting ITS sequences were identical and the cox1 sequences showed a divergence of 0-0.75%. Sphaerirostris lanceoides is the first species of the genus for which the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 and cox1 loci have been sequenced to aid species identification.

Mitochondrial DNA dataset suggest that the genus Sphaerirostris Golvan, 1956 is a synonym of the genus Centrorhynchus Lühe, 1911

“…The morphology and morphometrics of our specimens are almost identical with the descriptions of the cystacanths of S. lanceoides by Sato et al (2005Sato et al ( , 2006, Torracca et al (2010) and Kang and Li (2018), including the size and morphology of the trunk and proboscis, the number of the longitudinal rows of proboscis hooks and the hooks per longitudinal row (Fig. 1).…”

“…(2005, 2006), Torracca et al . (2010) and Kang and Li (2018), including the size and morphology of the trunk and proboscis, the number of the longitudinal rows of proboscis hooks and the hooks per longitudinal row (Fig. 1).…”

“…The specimens of S. lanceoides (Petrochenko, 1949) were isolated from the intestine of the Indian pond heron Ardeola grayii (Sykes) (Ciconiiformes: Ardeidae) in the district Swabi (34°07 ′ 07.23 ′′ N, 72°36 ′ 32.38 ′′ E), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, and then stored in 75% ethanol at −20°C for molecular studies. The specimens were identified as the cystacanths of S. lanceoides using morphological characters and genetic data (cox1 sequences) according to Sato et al (2005Sato et al ( , 2006, Torracca et al (2010), and Kang and Li (2018).…”

Description and molecular analysis of an Italian population of Centrorhynchus globo caudatus (Zeder, 1800) Lühe, 1911 (Acanthocephala: Centrorhynchidae) from Falco tinnunculus (Falconidae) and Buteo buteo (Accipitridae)

“…The two cox1 available sequences of Sphaerirostris lanceoides were obtained from cystacanths present in amphibians and ardeid birds (i.e. Ardeola grayii), respectively (Kang & Li, 2018;Muhammad et al, 2020), and the only cox1 available sequence of Sphaerirostris picae was obtained from adults infecting the corvid Dendrocitta vagabunda (see Muhammad et al, 2019). Indeed, while Sphaerirostris mostly infects passerine birds, Centrorhynchus mainly infects birds of prey instead.…”

“…Reasonably adequate versions of the description of C. globocaudatus by these authors from Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and former Soviet states, respectively, among others listed in table 1, were used for comparison with our Italian specimens. Other brief descriptions usually based on one or two male or female specimens were also reported from other localities in Bulgaria (Dimitrova et al ., 1997), Hungary (Dimitrova et al ., 1995), India (Gupta & Gupta, 1972), Slovakia (Komorová et al ., 2015) and West Africa (Dimitrova & Gibson, 2005). The brief descriptions in Meyer (1932) and Yamaguti (1963) are worth noting.…”