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

Helmintos parasitas de lagartos Phyllodactylidae e Gekkonidae em estação ecológica na Caatinga, nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

We investigated the parasites of five lizard species belonging to Phyllodactylidae (Phyllopezus pollicaris and Gymnodactylus geckoides) and Gekkonidae (Hemidactylus agrius, Lygodactylus klugei and Hemidactylus brasilianus) families in a semiarid region of Brazil. Six nematode species were identified: Parapharyngodon alvarengai and Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis (Pharyngodonidae), Physaloptera lutzi (Physalopteridae), Skrjabinelazia intermedia (Seuratidae), Trichospirura sp. (Rhabdochonidae) and Piratuba sp. (Onchocercidae), and a cestode species, Oochoristica sp. (Linstowiidae). The most prevalent species were Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis, which infected P. pollicaris (75%), and Parapharyngodon alvarengai, which infected G. geckoides (29%). South American lizards were identified as being new hosts for the Trichospirura genus (a usual parasite of mammals), and there were 16 new occurrences of parasite species in the five lizard species studied herein.

Keywords:
Squamata; Nematoda; Cestoda; geckos; semiarid

Resumo

Nós investigamos os parasitas de cinco espécies de lagartos pertencentes às famílias Phyllodactylidae (Phyllopezus pollicaris e Gymnodactylus geckoides) e Gekkonidae (Hemidactylus agrius, Lygodactylus klugei e Hemidactylus brasilianus) em região semiárida do Brasil. Seis espécies de nematoides foram encontrados: Parapharyngodon alvarengai e Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis (Pharyngodonidae), Physaloptera lutzi (Physalopteridae), Skrjabinelazia intermedia (Seuratidae), Trichospirura sp. (Rhabdochonidae), Piratuba sp. (Onchocercidae) e uma espécie de cestódeo, Oochoristica sp. (Linstowiidae). As espécies de maiores prevalências foram S. oxkutzcabiensis, a qual infectou P. pollicaris (75%) e P. alvarengai a qual infectou G. geckoides (29.%). Nós documentamos novo registro de hospedeiro para lagartos na América do Sul pertencente ao gênero Trichospirura, o qual é comum em mamíferos, e 16 novas ocorrências de espécies parasitas nas cinco espécies de lagartos aqui estudadas.

Palavras chave:
Squamata; Nematoda; Cestoda; geckos; semiárido

Introduction

Helminths are parasites that infect the internal and external organs of most invertebrate and vertebrate groups (Fergunson 1942; Round 1968; Salgado-Maldonado et al. 2005; Hamann et al. 2006a, b; Ávila et al. 2012). Among this wide diversification of hosts, there is a great diversity of parasites in South American lizards (Ávila & Silva 2010), and several studies have recorded variation in parasite richness and diversity (Bursey & Goldberg 2004; Bursey et al. 2005; Anjos et al. 2013; Araujo-Filho et al. 2014; Brito et al. 2014a, b; Galdino et al. 2014; Sousa et al. 2014).

Knowledge of the lizard-associated helminth fauna has increased through research concerning (i) records of new hosts (Bursey & Goldberg 2004; Bursey et al. 2005; Ávila & Silva 2010; McAllister et al. 2011; Ávila et al. 2012), (ii) descriptions of new parasite species (Bursey et al. 2003; Pereira et al. 2012), and (iii) influence of biotic and abiotic variables on helminth diversity and abundance (Sharpilo et al. 2001; Brito et al. 2014a, b; Galdino et al. 2014).

Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae are two lizard families of the Gekkota clade that are phylogenetically closely related taxa (Sites et al. 2011). Both families occur in Brazil with, respectively, 13 and six nominal species (Costa & Bérnils 2015), and only Gymnodactylus geckoides Spix, 1825, Phyllopezus periosus Rodrigues, 1986, Phyllopezus pollicaris (Spix, 1825) (Phyllodactylidae), Hemidactylus mabouia Moreau de Jonnes, 1818, and Hemidactylus agrius Vanzolini, 1978 (Gekkonidae) occur within the Caatinga biome. Hemidactylus brasilianus (Amaral, 1935) and Lygodactylus klugei (Smith, Martin & Swain, 1977) (Gekkonidae) often inhabit the Caatinga biome (Vitt 1995; Rocha et al. 2011; Andrade et al. 2013). These species are sit-and-wait foragers, have nocturnal habits (except for the diurnal L. klugei) and an insectivore diet (Vitt 1995; Colli et al. 2003; Rocha & Rodrigues 2005; Mesquita et al. 2006; Sousa 2010; Recorder et al. 2012; Albuquerque et al. 2013; Passos & Rocha 2013; Passos et al. 2015). The studies reporting helminth parasitism in South America for both families have been conducted by Anjos et al. (2005), Ávila & Silva (2010), Ávila et al. (2010), Ávila & Silva (2013), Brito et al. (2014a), Sousa et al. (2014), Cazorla & Morales Moreno (2015) and Bezerra et al. (2016).

Parasites are good indicators of healthy ecosystems, which is essential to studies of conservation and maintenance of host populations (Marcogliese 2004, 2005), which may reflect the anthropic influence in the environment in which they reside (Hamman et al. 2006b). Thus, characterization of the parasite population of a certain area of the Caatinga biome is essential, especially for future studies on species conservation.

The current study characterizes the helminth richness of parasitic species and the parameters of parasitic infection (prevalence, mean intensity of infection and range) in lizards of the Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae families collected at the Aiuaba Ecological Station, northeastern Brazil.

Material and Methods

Lizards were collected at the Aiuaba Ecological Station (ESEC Aiuaba), municipality of Aiuaba, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil (6°36'27”S and 40°08'00.9”W, 466m asl, datum SIRGAS 2000) (Figure 1). The sampled area is within the Caatinga biome, which is characterized by xerophytic plants, shrubs, thorny trees and open areas (Andrade-Lima 1981). The climate in this biome is semiarid, hot tropical, with an average annual rainfall of 562.4 mm, average temperature ranging from 24 ºC to 26 ºC and a rainy season from February to April (IPECE 2015).

Figure 1
Geographic map featuring the Aiuaba Ecological Station (AIA), state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. In gray, the Caatinga biome as conceived by IBGE (2004).

We conducted manual collections through active searching over four sampling expeditions, two in 2014 (September and November) and two in 2015 (February and April) with authorization provided by the “Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade” (SISBIO order number 43753-1). The lizards were euthanized with a lidocaine lethal dose. Their snout-vent length (SVL) was measured with a digital caliper (± 0.01mm). Thereafter they were labelled, fixed with 10% formaldehyde and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. Lizard specimens were deposited in the Herpetological Collection of the Regional

University of Cariri, municipality of Crato, state of Ceará, Brazil. The hosts were dissected under a stereomicroscope and their body cavity, lung, stomach, small intestine and large intestine was analyzed in search of helminths. The lizard’s gonads were analyzed to determine their gender and sexual maturity. We considered as mature males those with developed testicles and a convoluted epididymis, and as mature females those that had vitellogenic follicles in their oviducts and/or eggs in their ovaries.

The nematodes were cleared in a Hoyer solution and the cestodes were colored in Carmim and cleared in a Hoyer solution as well for identification (Everhart 1957). The parasites were mounted on temporary slides for identification, and their morphology was compared with specimens present in the parasitological collection of the Universidade Regional do Cariri – URCAP, and bibliographic reference on the description of the parasite species found that did not have specimens in the collection. Subsequently, they were deposited in the Parasitological Collection of the Regional University of Cariri (^{Appendix 1}). The prevalence and the mean intensity of infection for each endoparasite species were calculated for each lizard species according to Bush et al. (1997).

Results

We sampled a total of 355 lizards specimens, distributed in the five focused species of this study. Phyllodactylidae: Phyllopezus pollicaris, 132 specimens, 57 males (SVL = 64.2 ± 8.4 mm) and 75 females (SVL = 62.5 ± 11.9 mm); Gymnodactylus geckoides, 71 specimens, 30 males (SVL = 37.7 ± 3.7 mm) and 41 females (SVL = 37.5 ± 4.1 mm). Gekkonidae: Hemidactylus agrius, 63 specimens, 28 males (SVL = 47.1 ± 3.8 mm) and 35 females (SVL = 47.8 ± 3.7 mm); Lygodactylus klugei, 65 specimens, 25 males (SVL = 27.5 ± 2.5 mm) and 40 females (SVL = 28.1 ± 2.4 mm); and Hemidactylus brasilianus, 24 specimens, 11 males (SVL = 45 ± 5.9 mm) and 13 females (SVL = 43.6 ± 5.7 mm). All lizards were in full sexual maturity.

We found six nematode species [Parapharyngodon alvarengai Freitas, 1957, Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis (Chitwood, 1938), Physaloptera lutzi Cristofaro, Guimarães & Rodrigues, 1976, Skrjabinelazia intermedia Freitas, 1940, Trichospirura sp. Smith & Chitwood, 1967 and Piratuba sp. Lent & Freitas, 1941] and one cestode of the genus Oochoristica Lühe, 1898 that could not be identified at the species level (Table 1).

Table 1
Helminth parasites collected in lizards belonging to Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae families from the Aiuaba Ecological Station, municipality of Aiuaba, state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. Number of Infected hosts = (NI), Prevalence = P (%), Mean Intensity of Infection = MII and Range (R). (*) New records of hosts.

Parasite	Location in host		Host (NI)	P (%)	MII (R)
NEMATODA
Pharyngodonidae
Parapharyngodon alvarengai	large intestine		Phyllopezus pollicaris (6)	4.54%	1.33 (1-2)
	large intestine		Hemidactylus brasilianus*(2)	8.33%	1 (1)
	small intestine; large intestine		Hemidactylus agrius (8)	12.69%	1.87 (1-4)
	small intestine; large intestine		Gymnodactylus geckoides (21)	29.57%	1.66 (1-5)
Spauligodon oxkcutzcabiensis	small intestine; large intestine		Phyllopezus pollicaris (99)	75%	26.02 (270)
	large intestine		Hemidactylus brasilianus* (2)	8.33%	5.5 (3-8)
	large intestine		Hemidactylus agrius* (11)	17.46%	1.9 (1-4)
	large intestine		Gymnodactylus geckoides (1)	1.40%	18 (18)
	large intestine		Lygodactylus klugei* (4)	6.15%	3 (1-9)
Physalopteridae
Physaloptera lutzi	stomach; large intestine		Phyllopezus pollicaris* (4)	3.03%	1.25 (1-2)
	stomach		Hemidactylus brasilianus* (1)	4.16%	1 (1)
	stomach		Hemidactylus agrius (1)	1.58%	6 (6)
	stomach; large intestine		Gymnodactylus geckoides (9)	12.67%	2 (1-4)
	stomach		Lygodactylus klugei (1)	1.53%	1 (1)
Seuratidae
Skrjabinelazia intermedia	small intestine; large intestine		Phyllopezus pollicaris* (1)	0.75%	2 (2)
	large intestine		Hemidactylus brasilianus* (4)	16.66%	1.25 (1-2)
	large intestine		Hemidactylus agrius* (17)	26.98%	1.64 (1-4)
Rhabdochonidae
Trichospirura sp.	gallbladder		Phyllopezus pollicaris* (13)	9.84%	3.69 (1-11)
	gallbladder		Hemidactylus brasilianus* (2)	8.33%	3.5 (2-5)
	gallbladder		Hemidactylus agrius* (12)	19.04%	2.58 (1-7)
	gallbladder		Gymnodactylus geckoides* (4)	5.63%	1.5 (1-3)
Onchocercidae
Piratuba sp.	body cavity		Gymnodactylus geckoides* (1)	1.40%	1 (1)
CESTODA
Linstowiidae
Oochoristica sp.	small intestine		Phyllopezus pollicaris (2)	1.51%	1.5 (1-2)
	small intestine		Hemidactylus brasilianus* (1)	4.16%	2 (2)
	small intestine		Hemidactylus agrius* (1)	1.58%	1 (1)

Helminth parasites found in this study have different life cycles. While P. lutzi, Oochoristica sp., Piratuba sp., Trichospirura sp. and S. intermedia have heteroxenic life cycles, which requires more than one host to complete its life cycle, P. alvarengai and S. oxkutzcabiensis have monoxenic life cycles, not requiring more than one host (Illgen–Wilcke et al. 1992, Anderson, 2000, Lhermitte et al. 2007) (Figure 2).

Figure 2
Helminths of the gastrointestinal tract of geckos from the Aiuaba Ecological Station (AIA), state of Ceará, northeastern Brazil: (a) Skrjabinelazia intermedia (posterior view); (b) Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis (entire specimen); (c) Oochoristica sp. (anterior view); (d) Physaloptera lutzi (anterior view); (e) Piratuba sp. (anterior view); (f) Parapharyngodon alvarengai (anterior view); (g) Trichospirura sp. (posterior view).

Discussion

Among the parasite species identified, there were 16 new records of hosts distributed among the five lizard species sampled in this study. We found three parasite species in P. pollicaris, four in H. agrius, two in G. geckoides, six in H. brasilianus and one in L. klugei.

Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis was first recorded with Thecadactylus rapicauda (Houttuyn, 1782) (Phyllodactylidae). In South America, S. oxkutzcabiensis was recorded in association with the following lizards (Ávila et al. 2010; Goldberg et al. 2010; Goldberg & Bursey 2010; Sousa et al. 2014): G. geckoides, Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818), Microlophus occipitalis (Peters, 1871), Phyllodactylus reissi (Peters, 1862), P. inaequalis Cope, 1876, P. johnwrighti Dixon & Huey, 1970, P. microphyllus (Cope, 1876), Phyllopezus lutzae (Loveridge, 1941) [= Bogertia lutzae] and Tropidurus guarani Alvarez, Cei & Scolaro, 1991 [= T. spinulosus]. Spauligodon oxkutzcabiensis was present in all five lizard species sampled in this research. It is, therefore, considered here as the lizard’s generalist endoparasite for Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae, adding H. agrius, H. brasilianus and L. klugei to the list of new records of hosts.

Parapharyngodon alvarengai was recorded as being hosted by Ameivula ocellifera (Spix, 1825) [= Cnemidophorus ocellifer], Ameiva ameiva (Linnaeus, 1758), Amphisbaena ridleyi Boulenger, 1890, Brasiliscincus heathi (Schmidt & Inger, 1951), G. geckoides, Phyllopezus pollicaris, P. periosus, Trachylepis atlantica (Schmidt, 1945), Tropidurus hispidus (Spix, 1825), T. semitaeniatus (Spix, 1825) and Hemidactylus agrius Vanzolini, 1978 (Anjos et al. 2011; Ávila et al. 2012; Brito et al. 2014b). We observed P. alvarengai infecting P. pollicaris, G. geckoides, H. agrius and H. brasilianus.

Physaloptera lutzi infected all lizards sampled in the current study. 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 (Anjos et al. 2011; Ávila et al. 2010, 2012; Brito et al. 2014b): Ameivula abaetensis (Dias, Rocha & Vrcibradic, 2002) [= Cnemidophorus abaetensis], Ameivula littoralis (Rocha, Araújo, Vrcibradic & Costa, 2000) [= Cnemidophorus littoralis], A. ocellifera, Enyalius bilineatus Duméril & Bibron, 1837, Eurolophosaurus nanuzae (Rodrigues, 1981), Liolaemus alticolor 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.

Regarding the Trichospirura genus, our data revealed P. pollicaris, G. Geckoides, H. agrius and H. brasilianus lizards as new host records for South America. Only primates from the following genera had been previously recorded as hosts for Trichospirura: Callicebus Thomas, 1903 (Orihel & Seibold 1971; Pacheco et al. 2003), Callithrix Erxleben, 1777 (Smith & Chitwood 1967; Resende et al. 1994), Saimiri Voigt, 1831 (Orihel & Seibold 1971), Aotus Illiger, 1811 (Orihel & Seibold 1971), Callimico Miranda Ribeiro, 1922 (Orihel & Seibold, 1971) and Saguinus Hoffmannsegg, 1807 (Cosgrove et al. 1968).

The Skrjabinelazia genus was found infecting geckos (Lhermitte et al. 2007; Anjos et al. 2011). Nevertheless, records for S. intermedia were restricted so far to a teid Ameivula nativo (Rocha, Bergallo & Peccinini–Seale, 1997) [= Cnemidophorus nativo] (Menezes et al. 2004), twice in Tropiduridae [Tropidurus torquatus and T. guarani, Vicente et al. 1993] and once for Dactyloidae Dactyloa punctata (Daudin, 1802) [= Anolis punctatus] (Ávila & Silva 2010). Our data provided three host records for S. intermedia: P. pollicaris, H. agrius, and H. brasilianus.

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.

Piratuba is a genus that belongs to the Onchocercidae family. It has a widespread distribution throughout South America, in which other studies reported that lizards from the genera Tropidurus, Kentropyx Spix, 1825, Plica (Linnaeus, 1758), Polychrus Merrem, 1820, Dactyloa (Daudin, 1804) [= Anolis] and Ameiva Meyer, 1795 were infected by parasites of the referred genus (Ávila & Silva 2010). We recorded a specimen Piratuba sp. infecting Gymnodactylus geckoides, which corresponds to a new record for Piratuba.

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; Avila & Silva 2013; 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. and species of the genus Parapharyngodon presented up to 55% prevalence, while S. oxkutzcabiensis did not exceed 8% in coastal environments of the tropical thorny mountain areas in Peru and Venezuela (Goldberg & Bursey 2010; Cazorla & Morales Moreno 2015)]. These results suggest that the different environmental conditions of distinct biomes may favor one parasitic species over another, such as S. oxkutzcabiensis. The presence of Trichospirura in lizards of the genus Sceloporus in Mexico and H. brookii haitianus Meerwarth, 1901 in Hispaniola (Goldberg et al. 2003; Powell et al. 1990), suggests that the new host records documented here may not be species-specific of the studied biome. Therefore, additional studies are necessary in the different biomes to determine the true helminth diversity of these two families of lizards.

The current study increases to 16 the number of new host records in association with the families Phyllodactylidae and Gekkonidae in the Caatinga biome. However, the development of new research on other areas of the biome is essential to enhance our scientific knowledge of the diversity of helminths associated with lizards.

Supplementary material

The following online material is available for this article:

Appendix 1 - Voucher specimens of helminth parasites and respective host lizards collected in the Aiuaba Ecological Station, northeastern Brazil.

Acknowledgements

We thank the support of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the scholarship of V.F. Lima, A.A.M. Teixeira, A.M.A. Pereira; and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq (PQ-302429/2015-8) for the research fellowship given to W.O. Almeida and scholarship to J.A. Araujo-Filho and D.A. Teles.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  2017

History

• Received
  19 Sept 2016
• Reviewed
  26 Sept 2017
• Accepted
  01 Oct 2017