Haemogregarine blood parasites in the lizards Podarcis bocagei (Seoane) and P. carbonelli (Pérez-Mellado) (Sauria: Lacertidae) from NW Portugal

Abstract

In Iberian and Canarian lizards, haemogregarines have been recorded infecting erythrocytes, but most of the records correspond to mature gametocytes. We analysed blood smears from 75 specimens of Podarcis bocagei (Seoane) and 33 specimens of P. carbonelli (Pérez-Mellado) from localities of north-western Portugal. We found haemogregarines in 74.7% of P. bocagei and 69.7% of P. carbonelli. Our observations show characteristics of the haemogregarines other than the morphology of the mature gametocytes. In histological sections of the liver of four hosts latent cysts with sporozoites and meronts with merozoites were detected. Both traits have been described as typical of the genera Hepatozoon Miller, 1908 and Hemolivia Petit, Landau, Baccam & Lainson, 1990. We suggest that not only P. bocagei and P. carbonelli from Portugal but other species of Iberian and Canarian lacertids might also be infected by species belonging to one or both genera.

Morphological and molecular characterization of Karyolysus ¿ a neglected but common parasite infecting some European lizards

“…in Europe, as demonstrated by experimental transmission and finding of sporokinets in mite's eggs, which confirmed the presence of Karyolysus sp., because this genus of blood parasite is characterized by transstadial and transovarial transmission [5]. Except for this study, only the reptile intermediate hosts have been examined in Europe by microscopic observations, mainly in the Mediterranean region [11][12][13][14]16]. One of the life cycle differences between Karyolysus, Hepatozoon and Hemolivia is transovarial transmission which was not described in Hepatozoon or Hemolivia but occurs in Karyolysus and we observed it as well.…”

“…Other studies from Slovakia are situated between 380 -1500 m. a. s. l., where conditions are probably less favorable for parasite development [4], although we observed the presence of ectoparasites on reptiles collected from the same locality. Contrarily, blood parasites found in lizards from southern part of Europe at higher altitudes from 650 -2,200 m. a. s. l. have been detected [3,[12][13][14][16][17][18].…”

“…Therefore several authors classified detected parasites only as "haemogregarines" or "blood parasites" [9,[11][12][13][14]. The presence of blood parasites was detected in various European lizards including Algyroides nigropunctatus, Iberolacerta horvathi, Podarcis muralis and P. melisellensis from Austria and Croatia [3], Podarcis lilfordi from Balearic Islands [11], L. agilis and Zootoca vivipara from Poland, Denmark and Sweden [4,5,9], L. viridis from Hungary [15], Podarcis bocagei and Podarcis carbonelli from Portugal [16], L. agilis chersonensis from Romania [2] and Iberolacerta monticola, P. muralis and Timon lepidus from Spain [12][13][14].…”

Sprint speed is related to blood parasites, but not to ectoparasites, in an insular population of lacertid lizards

“…Roca and Galdón (2010) suggested that blood parasites from lacertid lizards of the Iberian Peninsula and Canary Islands are from either the genus Hepatozoon or the genus Hemolivia Petit, Landau, Baccam and Lainson, 1990.…”

Apicomplexa primers amplify Proteromonas (Stramenopiles, Slopalinida, Proteromonadidae) in tissue and blood samples from lizards

“…Traditionally, microscopy has been the gold-standard in parasitological studies and-there has been considerable effort to identify and classify the diversity of protist biota in reptiles, namely intestinal flagellates (e.g., Wood 1935;Wenrich 1947;Janakidevi 1961a, b;Krishnamurthy 1968;Telford 1970;Dollahon and Janovy 1971;Saratchandra and Narasimhamurti 1980a, b;Telford and Bursey 2003) and hemoparasites (e.g., Amo et al 2005, Austin and Perkins 2006, Roca and Galdón 2010. Recently, molecular methods have been increasingly used for the detection of protists in both wild and domestic animals.…”