Two new genera and species of Nippostrongylinae (Nematoda: Heligmonellidae) parasites of two murine rodents (Muridae): from the Moluccas, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea with a comment on a pentastomatid

Revision of the genera of Heligmonellidae (Nematoda, Heligmosomoidea), parasitic in Muridae from New Guinea

“…The genus Nippostrongylus was proposed by Durette-Desset et al [9] to be Asiatic in origin, reaching Australia with migrating Rattus spp. The finding, in New Guinea, of N. sembeli in old endemic hosts and also of N. magnus primarily described in old and new endemics from Australia [23,24], supports an Asiatic origin of the genus, with processes of host switching and speciation following migration, as suggested by Smales [34]. These host relationships and geographic distributions also support host migration across the Torres Strait from Australia to New Guinea as the origin of the presence of N. magnus in New Guinea as stated by Smales & Spratt [46].…”

“…Several of these native species belong to the genus Rattus and are thought to be recent colonists (the "new endemics"), arriving about 1 my ago, whereas the remaining species comprise a group of "old endemics", arriving about 5-10 my ago. These old endemics seem to be monophyletic, resulting from a single colonization event from which subsequent and rapid diversification followed [22,34]. Rodent colonists from Southeast Asia to the Sahul region, as well as those involved in multiple dispersal events between Australia and New Guinea related to successive sea level fluctuations [22], probably carried with them their communities of helminth parasites, as noted by Smales [34].…”

“…These old endemics seem to be monophyletic, resulting from a single colonization event from which subsequent and rapid diversification followed [22,34]. Rodent colonists from Southeast Asia to the Sahul region, as well as those involved in multiple dispersal events between Australia and New Guinea related to successive sea level fluctuations [22], probably carried with them their communities of helminth parasites, as noted by Smales [34].…”

“…Nippostrongylus Lane, 1923 is represented in New Guinea by Nippostrongylus magnus (Mawson, 1961) parasitic in Rattus leucopus and also in the same host from Australia [46], Nippostrongylus sembeli Hasegawa & Tarore, 1995 parasitic in U. caudimaculatus [34] but originally described from Rattus xanthurus from Sulawesi [17]; and the cosmopolitan Nippostrongylus brasiliensis (Travassos, 1919) parasitic in Melomys rufescens [30,34].…”

“…Studies on the helminthological fauna of New Guinean murids were scarce up to the 1990s with very few reports published before 2000 [34]. It is from 2001 on that a substantial amount of information has been produced, mainly with the considerable work carried out by Smales [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], Smales & Spratt [46,47] and Smales & Heinrich [45] through the publication of a series of papers on the gastrointestinal helminths of about 30 species of indigenous murid species.…”