Some digenetic trematodes of the olive ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea (Testudines, Cheloniidae) in Costa Rica

Abstract

Three species of digeneans including 1 Gorgoderidae (Plesiochorus cymbiformis) from the urinary bladder, 1 Plagiorchiidae (Enodiotrema megachondrus) from the duodenum, and 1 Pachypsolidae (Pachypsolus irroratus) from the stomach were recovered from 2 of 3 olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) found stranded along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. All trematodes represent new locality records. Histopathological changes associated with eggs of cardiovascular flukes (Digenea, Spirorchiidae) were described from the lungs, spleen, and intestine of a single turtle.

Report of Enodiotrema megachondrus (Looss, 1899) Looss, 1901 (Digenea: Plagiorchiidae) in a green turtle Chelonia mydas Linnaeus, 1758 (Testudines, Cheloniidae) from Brazil

“…2F). Previous records: In C. caretta from Egypt (Braun, 1901;Looss, 1899); France (Euzet & Combes, 1962); Italy (Manfredi et al, 1998); Mediterranean (Aznar et al, 1998;Santoro et al, 2010); Madera (Valente et al, 2009), Adriatic sea (Gracan et al, 2012) and USA (Greiner, 2013); C. mydas from Egypt (Looss, 1902), USA (Greiner, 2013) and Brazil (Present report); E. imbricata from Cuba (Groschaft et al, 1977); L. olivacea from Mexico (Pérez-Ponce de León et al, 1996;Vivaldo et al, 2006) and Costa Rica (Santoro & Morales, 2007) and L. kempii from and USA (Greiner, 2013).…”

“…The author subsequently described E. reductum and E. instar (Looss, 1901) and, in the following year, offered a better description of the two species as well as describing E. acariaeum Looss, 1902(Looss, 1902. Enodiotrema megachondrus is a generalist parasite described in C. mydas (Looss, 1902;Greiner, 2013; presente report), C. caretta (Braun, 1901;Looss, 1901Looss, , 1902Sey, 1977;Aznar et al, 1998;Manfredi et al, 1998;Valente et al, 2009;Santoro et al, 2010;Gracan et al, 2012;Greiner, 2013), Eretmochelys imbricata Linnaeus, 1766 (Groschaft et al, 1977), Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829) (Vivaldo et al, 2006;Santoro & Morales, 2007) and Lepidochelys kempii (Garman, 1880) (Greiner, 2013) in different regions of the world. Although E. megachondrus has been described in different hosts, this species has been studied better in C. caretta hosts, especially in regions of Europe (Aznar et al, 1998;Manfredi et al, 1998;Valente et al, 2009;Santoro et al, 2010;Gracan et al, 1012).…”

“…The identifi cation keys of genera by Tkach (2008), the original descriptions by Looss (1899) and papers by Gupta & Mehrotra (1976) and Looss (1902) were used for the characterization of the specimen. Morphological and morphometric data from, Looss (1899), Groschaft et al (1977) and Santoro & Morales (2007) were used for the purposes of comparison. gland posterior to ovary; both testicles rounded and occupying a diagonal position (Figs.…”

“…Vivaldo et al (2006) analyzed 28 hosts from the Mexican coast reported the occurrence of only seven specimens of E. megachondrus, with no determination of prevalence, abundance or intensity. Santoro & Morales (2007) analyzed three individuals of L. olivacea from Costa Rica and collected three specimens of E. megachondrus from the duodenum in one of the turtles analyzed. There is only one report of the parasite in E. imbricata from Cuba (Groschaft et al, 1977).…”

- Fisheries Bycatch of Marine Turtles: Lessons Learned from Decades of Research and Conservation

“…E. megachondrus had the highest abundance and had the second highest prevalence, following A. serialis (Perez Ponce de Leon, 1996). A study of 3 olive ridleys in Costa Rica recovered 3 E. megachondrus in the upper intestine from 1 turtle, 1 P. irroratus from the stomach and 31 P. cymbiformis from the urinary bladder of another host (Santoro and Morales, 2007). Nothing more is known on the parasites of this marine turtle.…”