First record of Cephalobaena tetrapoda (Pentastomida: Cephalobaenidae) as a parasite on Liophis lineatus (Ophidia: Colubridae) in Northeast Brazil

W O Almeida,S V Brito,F S Ferreira,M L Christoffersen

doi:10.1590/s1519-69842006000300023

W O Almeida, S V Brito + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1519-69842006000300023

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Abstract

Cephalobaenidae constitutes one of the main pentastomid groups infecting the respiratory tract of snakes. Six specimens of Liophis lineatus, a colubrid, were collected by active capture and pitfalls installed on the banks of the Batateiras river, close to its source, in the APA - Area de Proteção Ambiental (a protected environmental area of the IBAMA - Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources), and in a remnant of the humid tropical forest FLONA - Floresta Nacional do Araripe, both in the municipality of Crato, state of Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Out of the six specimens of L. lineatus examined, only one had its lung infected by the pentastomid Cephalobaena tetrapoda. This represents the first record of C. tetrapoda as a parasite of a snake in Northeast Brazil, as well as the first record of a colubrid, L. lineatus, as a new host for the pentastomid in Brazil.

Highlights

The family Cephalobaenidae is a group of endoparasites that infect the respiratory tract of snakes
Three species of Cephalobaena have been described from South America: C. tetrapoda Heymons, 1922, C. giglioli (Hett, 1924) and C. freitasi (Motta & Gomes, 1968) (Rego, 1983)
Among the six specimens of L. lineatus examined, only the one collected in the APA had its lungs infected by a male and a female of Cephalobaena tetrapoda (Figure 1, Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The family Cephalobaenidae is a group of endoparasites that infect the respiratory tract of snakes. They are characterized by a cephalotorax with five short protuberances, from which the name pentastomid derives. Today Cephalobaenidae is a family of pentastomids constituted by a single neotropical species, C. tetrapoda (see Riley, 1986: 61-63). This species live in viperid snakes collected in the neotropical regions, as in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina (Sambon, 1922a). In Brazil a single case of C. tetrapoda infecting snake was reported in Crotalus terrificus (Viperidae) collected in the state of São Paulo (Motta, 1963a: 7-8)

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