Nematodes of Proceratophrys ararype (Anura: Odontophrynidae), an endemic frog from the Araripe Plateau, northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Parasites are an important component of the global biomass, having significant roles in several regulatory mechanisms in the ecosystem. Parasitism is one of the most common ecological interactions on the planet. Studies have shown that the helminth fauna of only 8% of amphibian species in Brazil have been studied, and this percentage is lower for the Odontophrynidae family, with only four of the 50 species kown to occur in Brazil having been investigated. Here, we present the helminth fauna of Proceratophrys ararype, an anuran endemic to the “Brejo de Altitude” Chapada do Araripe (Araripe Plateau), northeastern Brazil. The infection parameters analyzed were prevalence, mean intensity of infection and mean abundance of parasites. We used the Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient to check the correlations between the abundance of the parasites with the snout-vent length (SVL) of hosts. To verify the degree of aggregation of parasites in hosts, we used the dispersion index. Out of 40 specimens examined, 19 specimens were infected with at least one parasite. The overall prevalence was 47.5% with a mean infection intensity of 18.93 ± 10.77. The endoparasitic community associated with P. ararype consisted of six species of parasites, with Falcaustra mascula having the highest prevalence (25%). Most parasites had a uniform dispersion index in the hosts and their abundance was unrelated to host size. Here, we also present a compilation of all parasites associated with host species of the genus Proceratophrys from South America. Overall, we found 23 species of parasites associated with five host species (P. ararype, P. appendiculata, P. boiei, P. cristiceps, P. mantiqueira). Of these, two species of parasites (Oswaldocruzia mazzai and Strongyloides sp.) represent new records for the genus Proceratophrys. Our results demonstrate the lack of studies on amphibian helminth fauna and fill an important knowledge gap on the diversity of parasites of Proceratophrys ararype, an endemic frog from the Araripe Plateau, northeastern Brazil.

Endoparasite community of anurans from an altitudinal rainforest enclave in a Brazilian semiarid area

“…This pattern was also found in other parasitological studies dealing with amphibians (e.g. Oliveira et al, 2019;Mascarenhas et al, 2021;Machado et al, 2022). It seems that this hypothesis might be more evidenced concerning a species pool with anuran species of different sizes (e.g.…”

“…In addition, we present 20 new host records (see table 2), reinforcing the importance of parasite checklists. Due to the increase in parasitological studies (Mascarenhas et al, 2021), it is quite common to find records of parasites not previously reported for host species (Aguiar et al, 2014;Silva et al, 2019). In the last decade, several studies on parasitism in Neotropical amphibians have been conducted (Madelaire et al, 2012;Aguiar et al, 2015;Chero et al, 2016;Amorim et al, 2019;Silva-Neta et al, 2020;Sani et al, 2021;Machado et al, 2022), with the nematode parasites Falcaustra mascula,…”

“…According to Aho (1990), anurans show low parasite richness that is variable and isolationist when compared to other vertebrate groups. However, some amphibian species may present a higher richness of helminths (Hamann et al, 2006), being currently accepted that amphibians harbour rich and diverse helminth fauna (Campião et al, 2014;Oliveira et al, 2019;Mascarenhas et al, 2021;Machado et al, 2022). Recently published studies (e.g.…”

“…Such areas are classified as of extreme biological importance (MMA, 2000; Sousa et al , 2004), and responsible for the greatest richness of anurans in Ceará state, northeastern Brazil (Roberto & Loebmann, 2016). Despite the recent increase of parasitological studies dealing with anurans from these mountains (Silva-Neta et al , 2020; Mascarenhas et al , 2021; Machado et al , 2022), their parasite diversity is still underestimated.…”

“…Recently published studies (e.g. Campião et al , 2015b; Lins et al , 2017; Oliveira et al , 2019; Silva-Neta et al , 2020; Mascarenhas et al , 2021) report processes that influence the structure of helminth communities in amphibians, including host size, genus, diet, site of infection, species and behaviour. In addition, features of host habitats are key factors in parasite colonization (Goater et al , 2005), drawing attention to the composition of parasite communities, which vary widely among host populations of the same species (Poulin et al , 2011; Bezerra et al , 2016).…”