Phylogeny and micro-habitats utilized by lizards determine the composition of their endoparasites in the semiarid Caatinga of Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Trophic networks can have architectonic configurations influenced by historical and ecological factors. The objective of this study was to analyze the architecture of networks between lizards, their endoparasites, diet, and micro-habitat, aiming to understand which factors exert an influence on the composition of the species of parasites. All networks showed a compartmentalized pattern. There was a positive relation between diet and the diversity of endoparasites. Our analyses also demonstrated that phylogeny and the use of micro-habitat influenced the composition of species of endoparasites and diet pattern of lizards. The principal factor that explained the modularity of the network was the foraging strategy, with segregation between the "active foragers" and "sit-and-wait" lizards. Our analyses also demonstrated that historical (phylogeny) and ecological factors (use of micro-habitat by the lizards) influenced the composition of parasite communities. These results corroborate other studies with ectoparasites, which indicate phylogeny and micro-habitat as determinants in the composition of parasitic fauna. The influence of phylogeny can be the result of coevolution between parasites and lizards in the Caatinga, and the influence of micro-habitat should be a result of adaptations of species of parasites to occupy the same categories of micro-habitats as hosts, thus favoring contagion.

Helminth parasites of Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae lizards in a Caatinga ecological station, northeastern Brazil

“…Although it had been originally described as a parasite of A. ameiva, we recorded both P. pollicaris and H. brasilianus as new hosts for this species. Other records of hosts for P. lutzi were also reported in the literature Ávila et al 2010Brito et al 2014b): Ameivula abaetensis (Dias, Rocha & Vrcibradic, 2002) Barbour, 1909, L. ornatus Koslowsky, 1898, L. quilmes Etheridge, 1993, Tropidurus guarani, T. semitaeniatus, T. hispidus, T. itambere Rodrigues, 1987, T. torquatus (Wied, 1820), H. agrius, L. klugei, G. geckoides, Micrablepharus maximiliani (Reinhardt & Lütken, 1862 and Salvator merianae (Duméril & Bibron, 1839) [= Tupinambis merianae]. Given that P. lutzi has a heteroxenic life cycle, its intermediate host is probably a food item that is consumed by all sampled lizards in our study area.…”

“…Currently, there are 23 genera of helminths recognized as parasites of the lizard families Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae (Anjos et al 2005;Ávila & Silva 2010;Ávila et al 2010;Brito et al 2014a;Sousa et al 2014;Cazorla & Morales Moreno 2015;Bezerra et al 2016; this study); for the Caatinga biome, about 10 species of helminths have already been reported with a prevalence above 50% (Anjos et al 2005;Avila et al 2012;Brito et al 2014b;Sousa et al 2014; this study), and there were four helminth species with prevalences below 60% for deserts and coastal areas in Peru (Goldberg & Bursey 2010); two species had prevalences of 33.3% in the Brazilian Amazon forest (Ávila & Silva 2013); two species had prevalences up to 22.8% in the Atlantic Forest (Ávila et al 2010;Almeida-Gomes et al 2012); and three helminth species had prevalences below 15% for the tropical thorny mountain areas of Venezuela (Cazorla & Morales Moreno 2015). Notwithstanding that some genera and species of helminths were previously reported for different biomes as parasites of geckos, as S. oxkutzcabiensis and all species of the genera Oochoristica and Parapharyngodon, almost all prevalences registered for them were below that obtained for the Caatinga biome [e.g., Oochoristica sp.…”

“…Nevertheless, records for S. intermedia were restricted so far to a teid Ameivula nativo (Rocha, Bergallo & Peccinini-Seale, 1997) Little is known about the biology of the genus Oochoristica. Most studies on the genus were limited to describe new species and record new hosts (Ávila & Silva 2010;Brito et al 2014b;Sousa et al 2014). Our study reports three records of hosts (P. pollicaris, H. agrius and H. brasilianus) with two new infection records for the genus Oochoristica.…”

Helminths of the Lizard Salvator merianae (Squamata, Teiidae) in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil

“…Salvator merianae has been well reported as a host for the nematodes of the family Physalopteridae in Brazil, as follow: P. bainae (Pereira et al, 2014); P. lutzi (Brito et al, 2014b); P. retusa , and P. tupinambae (Pereira et al, 2012). In addition, P. lutzi also infects the stomach of the following lizards: Ameiva ameiva (Linnaeus, 1758) (Ribas et al, 1998); C. abaetensis Dias, Rocha andVrcibradic, 2002 (Dias et al, 2005); (Ribas et al, 1995); Enyalius bilineatus Duméril and Bibron, 1837 (Vrcibradic et al, 2007); Eurolophosaurus nanuzae (Rodrigues, 1981) (Fontes et al, 2003); Tropidurus itambere (Rodrigues, 1987) (Van Sluys et al, 1994; T. torquatus (Wied-Neuwied, 1820) (Vrcibradic et al, 2000); T. oreadicus Rodrigues, 1987Rodrigues, (Ávila et al, 2011.…”

“…in areas of the Caatinga, in the Brazilian semiarid (Brito et al, 2014a); Cruzia travassosi Khalil and Vogelsang, 1932 in areas of the Amazon Forest, Cerrado and Pantanal ; Diaphanocephalus galeatus (Rudolphi, 1819) in areas of coastal biomes in the Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha and the Amazon Forest, Cerrado and Pantanal (Ramalho et al, 2009;; Physaloptera tupinambae Pereira, Alves, Rocha, Souza Lima and Luque, 2012 and P. bainae Pereira, Alves, Rocha, Souza Lima and Luque, 2014 in the municipality of Juiz de Fora -MG in areas of the Atlantic Forest (Pereira et al, 2012(Pereira et al, , 2014; P. lutzi Cristofaro, Guimarães and Rodrigues, 1976 in areas of the Caatinga, in the Brazilian semiarid (Brito et al, 2014b); P. retusa Rudolphi, 1819 in the Amazon Forest, Cerrado and Pantanal ; Spinicauda spinicauda (Olfers, 1819) in coastal biomes, and the Amazon Forest, Cerrado and Pantanal (Ramalho et al, 2009;; and a species of Cestoda not identified, Oochoristica sp. in coastal biomes in the Archipelago of Fernando de Noronha (Ramalho et al, 2009).…”