Abstract
We studied the ecology of ticks found in different species of a taxocenosis of snakes from the Serra do Mendanha, an area of Atlantic Rainforest located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Snakes were sampled monthly in the field during a period of 48 months. The specific identity of the hosts and their parasites, the number of parasites, and and snout-vent length and body mass of each host were recorded. A total of 25% of the species of snakes in the area were parasitized by ticks (larvae, nymphs and adult females) Amblyomma rotundatum Koch, 1844 was the predominant parasite species. The infestation parameters varied among the species of snakes sampled, with the highest prevalence of A. rotundatum being observed in the viperid Bothrops jararaca (Wied, 1824) (71.4%), followed by the colubrids Xenodon neuwiedii Gunther, 1820 (33%), Chironius laevicollis (Wied, 1824) and Spilotes pullatus (Linnaeus, 1758) (both with 22%). The latter three species also showed the highest rates of infestation by A. rotundatum. The results of the present study suggest that a combination of skin shedding, habitat of the host, type of scale and pattern of scale distribution on the body of the host can influence the degree to which a given species is parasitized by ticks
Highlights
Information on Neotropical snake ectoparasitism by ticks and mites is still relatively scarce in the literature and usually involves data collected from snakes in captivity (e.g. MARA 1995, AMORIM et al 1996, CUBAS 1997, BUSH et al 2002, MELGAREJOGIMENEZ 2002)
Out of the 24 species of snakes sampled, six (25%) were parasitized exclusively by ticks: Chironius fuscus (Linnaeus, 1758), Chironius laevicollis (Wied, 1824), Spilotes pullatus (Linnaeus, 1758), Xenodon neuwiedii Günther, 1820, Bothrops jararaca (Wied, 1824) and Bothrops jararacussu Lacerda, 1884
The ticks found in sampled snakes belong to two species: A. rotundatum and one unidentified species of Amblyomma Koch, 1844
Summary
Information on Neotropical snake ectoparasitism by ticks and mites is still relatively scarce in the literature and usually involves data collected from snakes in captivity (e.g. MARA 1995, AMORIM et al 1996, CUBAS 1997, BUSH et al 2002, MELGAREJOGIMENEZ 2002). Information on Neotropical snake ectoparasitism by ticks and mites is still relatively scarce in the literature and usually involves data collected from snakes in captivity Studies performed under natural conditions are rare (LIZASO 1984, CUNHA et al 2003, DANTAS-TORRES et al 2005, PONTES & ROCHA 2008). When trying to understand the degrees to which certain species are affected and the reasons for the observed patterns, few studies evaluate parameters such as abundance, extent and prevalence of ectoparasitism in taxocenoses of snakes. We analyze certain parameters of ectoparasitism in a taxocenosis of snakes from an area of the Atlantic Forest in the southeast of Brazil (state of Rio de Janeiro), in an attempt to understand how such ectoparasitism affects certain host species locally
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