Nematode infection patterns in a Neotropical lizard species from an insular mountain habitat in Brazil

Abstract

Neotropical lizards are known to harbour rich nematode parasite faunas; however, knowledge of the diversity and patterns of infection are still lacking for many species. This is true for the genus Tropidurus, in which data on patterns of parasitism are known for only approximately 11 of its 30 species. We show that the nematode fauna associated with a population of Tropidurus montanus is composed of three species of host-generalist parasites with high overall prevalence. Male and female lizards did not differ in infection pattern and there was no relationship between host body size and intensity of infection for the most prevalent parasite species. Nevertheless, overall prevalence changed seasonally, with a higher proportion of parasitized individuals being found in the dry period than in the rainy period. We discuss our findings in the context of diet patterns of T. montanus, which we suggest may explain the similarities in prevalence and intensity of infection between the sexes. In addition, seasonal changes in diet are considered to be related to the observed differences in prevalence between dry and rainy periods.

Seasonal differences in parasite load in a short-lived lizard

“…For instance, in xeric shrubland, helminth species abundance was high during the wet season, whereas in broadleaf forest it was high during the dry season (Filho et al 2017). In terms of the humidity, our result is similar to parasite infections of a Neotropical lizard (Tropidurus montanus), which has a higher prevalence of helminth during the dry season than the wet season (Václav et al 2017).…”

Helminth parasites of Mabuya arajara Rebouças-Spieker, 1981 (Lacertilia: Mabuyidae) from Chapada do Araripe, northeastern Brazil

“…infected lizards and transferred to amphibians (Sousa et al 2015;Montes-Oca et al 2016). Among lizards, previous host records include the Maldonado 1998), Scincidae (Freitas 1957;Brito et al 2014), Teiidae (Padilha and Duarte 1979;Macedo et al 2017), and Tropiduridae (Brito et al 2014;Galdino et al 2014;Bezerra et al 2015;Araújo-Filho et al 2016;Václav et al 2017). Among amphibians, hosts include members of the Bufonidae (Luque et al 2005) and Hylidae families (Montes-Oca et al 2016).…”

Digit ratio in three species of tropidurid lizards

“…For each species, all individuals (adults only) were collected, euthanised and preserved for the development of previous ecological studies (Václav et al 2016: T. montanus; Werneck 2017: T. torquatus; Melo et al 2019: E. nanuzae). Thus, for a given species, individuals pertain to the same population (from the same single site) and were collected over the same period (T. torquatus: January to December 2011; T. montanus: September 2013 to April 2014; E. nanuzae: November 2014 to August 2015).…”