How epidemiological patterns shift across populations in an exotic lizard

Abstract

Several factors influence the dynamics and structure of parasite communities. Our goal was to investigate how the community composition, prevalence and abundance of parasites change across seven populations of the exotic lizard Hemidactylus mabouia in Northeast Brazil, and to describe ontogenetic and sex variations. We found differences in the composition of component communities and patterns of infection according to the host body size across the lizard populations. We did not find any variation between the sexes regarding epidemiological patterns, which can probably be explained by the similar diet and habitat use of male and female H. mabouia. An unusually high abundance and prevalence of trematodes infecting this host lizard was apparent when we compared other native lizard hosts, and we suggest that local environmental conditions might be advantageous to the development and life cycle of these parasites due to the abundance of all the intermediate and definitive hosts.

Helminths associated withNorops fuscoauratus(Squamata, Dactyloidae) in highland marshes of the Brazilian semi-arid

“…Parasitism can alter the structure of wild communities (Fournié et al ., 2015) due to changes in the behaviour and aptitude of the hosts (Adelman & Martin, 2009; Preston & Johnson, 2012). The increase in parasitic load can be related to the larger body size of the hosts (Poulin, 2004; Kamiya et al ., 2014; Teixeira et al ., 2018), and can interfere with their levels of infection (Anjos et al ., 2005; Barreto Lima et al ., 2011; Bezerra et al ., 2020). However, efforts to document parasites are insufficient (Jorge & Poulin, 2018), limiting the understanding of determining factors of this structuring (Ibrahim & Soliman, 2005).…”

Checklist of parasites associated with ʻreptiles’ in Northeast Brazil

“…References: (1) Menezes et al (2004); (2) Araújo Filho et al (2020); (3, 8, 5, 16) Teixeira et al, 2020); (4) Dias et al (2005); (6) Sousa et al (2014); (7) Bezerra et al (2020); (9, 11) Pereira et al (2018); (10) Amorim & Ávila (2019); (12) Araujo Filho et al . (2014); (13) Anjos et al (2012); (14) Ávila et al (2012); (15) Maia-Carneiro et al (2018); (17) Vicente (1978), Vicente et al (1993); (18) Silva et al (2021)…”

“…References: (1, 5, 8) Brito et al (2014b); (2) Araújo Filho et al (2020); (3, 10, 15) Brito et al (2014a, b); (4) Cabral et al (2018); (6) Lima et al (2017); (7) Alcantara et al (2019); (9) Galdino et al (2014); (11) Maia-Carneiro et al (2018); (12) Araujo Filho et al (2017); (13) Teixeira et al (2020); (14) Alcantara et al (2018a); (16) Anjos et al (2011); (17) Bezerra et al (2020); (18) Ribeiro et al (2018); (19) Ramalho et al (2009); (20) Freitas (1957)…”

“…References: (1, 3, 7, 10) Brito et al (2014b); (2) Araújo Filho et al (2020); (4) Sousa et al (2014); (5) Lima et al (2017); (6) Silva Neta & Ávila (2018); (8) Ribeiro et al (2018); (9) Ferreira et al (2020a); (10) Bezerra et al (2020); (11, 15) Teixeira et al (2020); (12) Xavier et al 2019); (13, 16) Brito et al (2014a, b); (14) Araujo Filho et al (2017); (17) Ramalho et al (2009)…”