Chordodes ferox, a new record of horsehair worms (Nematomorpha, Gordiida) from South Africa

Abstract

Three females and one male specimen of a previously unconfirmed species of horsehair worms (Nematomorpha) from South Africa are described using Scanning Electron Microscopy. The females correspond to the description of Chordodes ferox Camerano, 1897, a species previously described from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) and an adjacent, not further specified region of the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). Characteristic is the presence of enlarged and elevated simple areoles around the base of a thorn areole, in combination with further cuticular characters. This is the latest of a total of six species of horsehair worms reported from South Africa so far. Two species of praying mantids, Polyspilota aeruginosa (Goeze, 1778) and Sphodromantis gastrica Stål, 1858, have been identified as hosts of Chordodes ferox, while its distribution range in the region and the period of adult emergence from the host remain largely unknown.

Deeper knowledge of shallow waters: reviewing the invertebrate fauna of southern African temporary wetlands

“…They also described a previously unconfirmed species (Chordodes ferox Camerano, 1897) collected from a live praying mantid floating in a river in the Eastern Cape province, SA. Nine species recorded by Corrêa (1951) and Schmidt-Rhaesa & Perissinotto (2016) appear to be all that is known taxonomically of the fauna from the southern African region to date. Nematomorph larvae are dependent on an aquatic medium, where they generally penetrate the bodies of arthropods (particularly orthopterans) and spend the vast majority of their lives growing into large adult worms inside the host body.…”

The collection of Nematomorpha in the Zoological Museum Hamburg, including description of a new species, Chordodes jelkae sp. n.

“…SEM investigations reveal that small bristles may be more abundant than known on the basis of traditional light microscopical investigation and they may even form small tuft-like structures as present, e.g. in C. parabipilus Kintsurashvili, Schmidt-Rhaesa & Gorgadze, 2011(Kintsurashvili et al 2011), C. moutoni Camerano, 1895(Schmidt-Rhaesa and Yadav 2013) and C. combiareolatus Schmidt-Rhaesa, Limatemjen & Yadav, 2015(Schmidt-Rhaesa et al 2015. Compared to these species, the tuft of bristles is larger in C. jelkae sp.…”

Morphological and molecular characterization of Gordius, a horse hairworm recovered from cricket

“…A total of 300 species of different parasites of Nematomorpha have been on record and out of these, 22 species fall under the genera Gordius [3]. There are few reports of the occurrence of Nematomorpha in frogs, fishes, bird and even in humans [4][5][6][7].…”