Study of Helminth Parasites of Amphibians by Scanning Electron Microscopy

Parasitic Fauna of Captive Snakes (Serpentes, Colubridae) from Northeastern Argentina

“…Adult parasite specimens collected from some snake cavities/organs (see necropsy procedure, below) were fixed in hot 4% formaldehyde, dehydrated in an ascending series of ethanol solutions to 70%, transferred to 5% glycerin–95% ethanol from which the alcohol was allowed to evaporate, and cleared in 96.6% glycerol–0.05% potassium chloride–3.35% distilled water for 24–48 h prior to examination. Subsequently, specimens were mounted on metal specimen stubs with Duco cement, outgassed in a vacuum evaporator for 1 h, and rotary-coated with a thin layer of gold-palladium (Denton Vacuum Desk II; González et al, 2012) for examination by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using a JEOL 5800 LV SEM at an accelerating voltage of 15 Kv. We used the descriptions of Brusca et al (2018), Heymons and Graf Vitzthum (1935), Rego (1983), and Christoffersen and De Assis (2013) to identify pentastomids, Artigas de Toledo and Paulino (1988) to identify digeneans, Slapeta et al (2003) for coccidians, and Vicente et al (1993) for nematodes.…”