Description of Serpentirhabdias atroxi n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae), a parasite of Bothrops atrox (Linnaeus) (Reptilia: Serpentes: Viperidae) in Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract

A new lung-dwelling nematode species is described from the common lancehead Bothrops atrox (Linnaeus) in the Brazilian Amazon Region. The species is assigned to the genus Serpentirhabdias Tkach, Kuzmin & Snyder, 2014 based on the presence of six lips arranged in two lateral groups, the absence of prominent cuticular inflations, and lung parasitism in snakes. Serpentirhabdias atroxi n. sp. differs from other species of the genus mainly by details of the morphology of the anterior end: cuticularised ring surrounding the anterior part of the buccal cavity and six minute onchia present in the oesophastome. Serpentirhabdias atroxi n. sp. is the seventh species of the genus known from the Neotropical Realm and the second species described from viperid snakes.

Morphometric and phylogenetic analyses of Serpentirhabdias viperidicus n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) from the lancehead snake Bothrops moojeni Hoge, 1966 (Reptilia: Serpentes: Viperidae) in Brazil

“…The presence of onchia in species of Serpentirhabidias parasitic in viperidian snakes, such as S. atroxi (Kuzmin et al ., 2016) and S. viperidicus n. sp., allows us to consider them close to each other but separate from their congeneric species, mostly because both are recorded in the same country and family host.…”

“…The presence or absence of various structures at the anterior end, as well as their variations in shape and position, among nematodes from Rhabdias, have been widely used for species differentiation in this genus (Tkach et al ., 2014) and could also be valid for the genus Serpentirhabdias . The absence of the buccal capsule, shared by several species, could form a separate group inside the Serpentirhabdias , especially for Neotropical species, which share this characteristic (Kuzmin et al ., 2014, 2016). Seemingly, S. filicaudalis, described with a buccal capsule by Barrella et al .…”

“…Pit vipers of the genus Bothrops are among the best-studied most wide-ranging Neotropical snake clades (Carrasco et al ., 2012). Even with this extensive accumulated knowledge on natural history, taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships (Fenker et al ., 2014), only S. atroxi of the Rhabdiasidae was reported parasitizing a snake species of the Bothrops genus ( B. atrox ) (Kuzmin et al ., 2016). In addition, there is no study on the nematode fauna of Bothrops moojeni , a large pit viper from riparian areas in central and south-eastern Brazil, throughout the Cerrado morphoclimatic domain (Leloup, 1984; Campbell & Lamar, 1989; Borges & Araújo, 1998; Nogueira et al ., 2003; Fenker et al ., 2014).…”

Description, molecular characterization and life cycle of Serpentirhabdias mussuranae n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae) from Clelia clelia (Reptilia: Colubroidea) in Brazil

“…is assigned to the genus Serpentirhabdias Tkach, Kuzmin & Snyder, 2014 based on the arrangement of lips in two lateral groups, body cuticle only slightly inflated in anterior and posterior parts of body, absence of the buccal capsule and parasitism in the lung of a snake. Among the Neotropical representatives of the genus, three species are known to have the onchia in the oesophastome: S. atroxi , S. moi and S. viperidicus (Kuzmin et al ., 2016; Morais et al ., 2017; Machado et al ., 2018). However, due to insufficient details provided in some of the descriptions it cannot be excluded that some other Neotropical Serpentirhabdias may possess onchia.…”

New records of Helminths in Reptiles from five states of Brazil

“…However, 773 species of reptile species are currently recognized in Brazil (Costa and Bernils, 2015) and less than 30% were sampled for helminths. however, some species of snakes of parasites were only been described in recent years (Kuzmin et al, , 2016 especially with inclusion of molecular data (Morais et al, 2016).…”