Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

First occurrence of Spirocamallanus sp. (Nematoda, Camallanoidea) in a freshwater turtle, Hydromedusa tectifera (Cope, 1869) (Testudines, Chelidae), from Brazil

2014; Volume: 7; Linguagem: Inglês

2071-5773

Iara Alves Novelli, Glenda F. Morton, Israel T. Trindade, Diego A. Neto-Silva, Fabiano Matos Vieira,

Leech Biology and Applications

Chelidae) is a freshwater turtle native of South America, occurring in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Fritz and Havas, 2007). In Brazil, this species is distributed throughout the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Minas Gerais (Ernst and Barbour, 1989; Fagundes and Bager, 2007; Fritz and Havas, 2007). According to Souza (2005) all records of H. tectifera in Brazil are from the Atlantic rainforest biome. However, this species was also recorded in the Pampa biome by Fagundes and Bager (2007) and the Cerrado biome by Sousa and Novelli (2009). This species feeds on leeches, annelids, gastropods, arachnids, insects, fishes, and larval and adult of anurans (Bonino et al., 2009; Cabrera, 1998). Reports of the parasites of H. tectifera in Brazil are scarce and restricted to parasitism by ectosymbiont Platyhelminthes, Pentastomida, and Nematoda (e.g., Damborenea and Cannon, 2001; Junker et al., 2003; Mascarenhas et al. 2013). Until the current study, the only one report of nematodes parasitizing H. tectifera from Brazil was made by Mascarenhas et al. (2013), but these nematodes are not Spirocamallanus Olsen, 1952 (Camallanoidea, Camallanidae, Procamallaninae). Therefore, the aim of this study is to report for the first time the occurrence of nematodes Spirocamallanus sp. in the small intestine of H. tectifera from Brazil. We collected six nematodes in the small intestine of a young female of H. tectifera (CRLZ no 331) that was deposited in Colecao de Repteis do Laboratorio de Zoologia do Centro Universitario de Lavras – UNILAVRAS. The host was originated from Cerrado area at the Reserva Biologica Unilavras – Boqueirao (21.346oS, 44.990oW, datum: WGS84), municipality of Ingai, Minas Gerais state, and was collected in January 2011. The host was identified according to Bonin et al. (2006) and Ernst and Barbour (1989). The parasites were fixed AFA (70% ethanol, 93 parts; 37% formalin, 5 parts; glacial acetic acid, 2 parts) for 48 h, and preserved in 70% ethanol with 5% glycerin. For light microscopy studies, the nematodes were cleared in Amann’s lactophenol (1: 1 : 2 : 1 phenol : lactic acid : glycerin : water). Photomicrographs were made with Canon A3000IS camera, with 12.1 megapixels of resolution, coupled to the Olympus BX41 light microscope. Identification and classification of nematodes to the generic level follows Anderson et al. (2009) and Gibbons (2010). Voucher specimens (CHIOC no 35950) were deposited in the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz Helminthological Collection (CHIOC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All nematodes were identified as Spirocamallanus sp. (Figs. 1A-D), by having sclerotized bands of buccal capsule in form of spiral (Fig. 1C) and the absence of teeth at the base of buccal capsule (Anderson et al., 2009). The morphological identification of species of Spirocamallanus is only possible with study of Herpetology Notes, volume 7: 599-602 (2014) (published online on 25 October 2014)