Helminth infracommunity of the cane toad Rhinella marina (Anura: Bufonidae) within its native distribution range

Negative effects of parasitic lung nematodes on the fitness of a Neotropical toad (Rhinella horribilis)

“…(2013) reported a maximum intensity of 282 R. pseudosphaerocephala infecting invasive cane toads ( R. marina ) in Australia, Barton (1998) reported a maximum of 230 in the same host-parasite system, and Ruiz-Torres et al . (2017) reported a maximum of 647 R. fuelleborni in R. horribilis in Mexico. Prevalence of infection was also high compared with other studies on R. horribilis in Central America.…”

“…In Costa Rica (one site, n = 77 R. horribilis examined) prevalence was only 2.6% for both R. pseudosphaerocephala and R. alabialis ; mean intensity was also low: 4.5 and 1, respectively (Bursey and Brooks, 2010). In Mexico R. americanus infected 11.25% (two sites, n = 34 toads examined) of R. horribilis (Espinoza-Jiménez et al ., 2007) and prevalence of R. fuelleborni varied from 10% (one site, n = 40 R. horribilis examined, mean intensity = 1) (Espinola-Novelo and Guillen-Hernandez, 2008) to 53.3% (two sites, n = 34 R. horribilis examined) (Espinoza-Jiménez et al ., 2007) to a maximum of 66.6% (one site, n = 66 R. horribilis examined, mean intensity = 45.9) (Ruiz-Torres et al ., 2017). The latter study had comparable prevalence and intensity to the values that we report from Panama, though that study sampled only a single site.…”

“…infect R. marina across their native range (Kuzmin et al ., 2007; Dubey and Shine, 2008; Bursey and Brooks, 2010; Kuzmin et al ., 2015) and one species ( Rhabdias pseudosphaerocephala ) has been introduced to Australia (Dubey and Shine, 2008) where it negatively impacts toad growth, running performance and survival (Kelehear et al ., 2009; Kelehear et al ., 2011). In Central America, R. horribilis hosts at least four species of Rhabdias ( Rhabdias alabialis ; Rhabdias americanus ; Rhabdias fuelleborni ; R. pseudosphaerocephala ), with prevalence of infection fluctuating broadly from 2.6 to 66% (Espinoza-Jiménez et al ., 2007; Espinola-Novelo and Guillen-Hernandez, 2008; Bursey and Brooks, 2010; Ruiz-Torres et al ., 2017).…”

“…Throughout Central and South America ~19 species of Rhabdias are known from anuran hosts, yet there is no published information on Rhabdias in amphibians of Panama (Online Resource ESM1); the majority of research that has been done on Rhabdias infecting R. horribilis involves parasite surveys conducted in Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua (Espinoza-Jiménez et al ., 2007; Espinola-Novelo and Guillen-Hernandez, 2008; Bursey and Brooks, 2010; Ruiz-Torres et al ., 2017). A recent study from Brazil using sequencing of three mitochondrial and nuclear DNA loci, identified two new species of Rhabdias and five morphospecies, suggesting that diversity within the genus is high (Müller et al ., 2018).…”

Community structure of the helminths of Lithobates spectabilis (Anura: Ranidae) from two localities in the Biosphere Reserve Barranca de Metztitlán, Hidalgo, Mexico

“…Approximately, 402 species of amphibians have been described from Mexico (Frots, 2018;Parra-Olea et al, 2014), of which only 66 have been studied from a helminthological perspective; this number represents only about 18% of all Mexican species (Cabrera-Guzmán et al, 2021). Most of those works have focused mainly on taxonomic descriptions, lists of species, or population level studies (Cabrera-Guzmán, 2002;Cabrera-Guzmán et al, 2007Galicia-Guerrero et al, 2000;León-Règagnon et al, 2005;Velázquez-Urrieta & León-Règagnon, 2018), and only a few reports of the ecological structure of helminth communities (Adán-Torres et al, 2018;Espínola-Novelo et al, 2017;Goldberg et al, 2001;Mata-López et al, 2013;Paredes-Calderón et al, 2004;Ruiz-Torres et al, 2017;Zelmer et al, 2004). The only helminthological studies of amphibians from Hidalgo state are the helminth fauna of Ambystoma velasci (Dugès, 1888), Lithobates spectabilis Hillis andFrost, 1985 andRhinella horribilis (Wiegmann, 1833) (Falcón-Ordaz et al, 2014Pulido-Flores et al, 2009;Rodríguez-Amador et al, 2013).…”