Acanthocephala of the Genus Moniliformis from Rodents of Egypt with the Description of a New Species from the Egyptian Spiny Mouse (Acomys cahirinus)

Abstract

Moniliformis acomysi sp. n. is described from Acomys cahirinus (Egyptian spiny mouse) in Egypt. Specimens of Moniliformis moniliformis (Bremser, 1811) from Rattus rattus and Rattus norve- gicus in Egypt are described and variability studies on this species are reported. Analyses of variance have been carried out to determine morphological differences between sexes of worms and differences between worms from the two host species. With regard to sexual dimorphism, significant differences between males and females have been found in the number of proboscis hooks per longitudinal row, size of largest hooks, proboscis size, and body length. With regard to host species, significant differ- ences have been found in the number of longitudinal rows of hooks and the number of hooks per row. Acanthocephala were collected from a num- ber of rodents in Egypt by parasitologists of the U. S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, and forwarded to the writers by Dr. Robert E. Kuntz. The specimens from Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus have been identified as Moniliformis moniliformis (Bremser, 1811). The specimens from Acomys cahirinus differ from previously described species of Monili- formis in shape and size of proboscis and in other respects and are therefore described as a new species. It is not surprising that M. moniliformis is a cosmopolitan species since rats, the normal de- finitive host, have been transported by ships to all parts of the world. This species has been reported from Meriones sinaiticus and Scarturus tetradactylus in Egypt and from Erinaceus algirus in Tunis. Other species of Moniliformis have been reported from other parts of Africa, but we have found no records of other species of Moniliformis from Egypt. In 1897 von Linstow described M. ovocristatus from Tenrec ecaudatus, an insectivore, in Madagascar. Re- cently Dollfus and Golvan (1963) received an additional collection of acanthocephalans from this host in Madagascar, and after careful ex- amination recognized that these parasites rep- resented a new genus to which they gave the name Promoniliformis. The genus is charac-