Gastrointestinal Nematodes from Three Species of Australian Leaf-tailed Geckos (Reptilia: Saltuarius spp.), with Descriptions of New Species of Skrjabinodon (Oxyuroidea: Pharyngodonidae) and Hedruris (Habronematoidea: Hedruridae)

Abstract

Two new species of Skrjabinodon, Skrjabinodon barrinae n. sp. and Skrjabinodon swainii n. sp., are described from Australian leaf-tailed geckos (Gekkonidae: Saltuarius), and Skrjabinodon oedurae is redescribed from the Australian gecko Oedura robusta. They are distinguished from one another, and from Skrjabinodon poicilandri from a New Zealand gecko, Hoplodactylus maculatus, by length and proportions of the terminal tail filament and the number of spines thereon, the form of the male somatic alae, disposition of papillae at the base of the male tail, and the large excretory vesicle in S. oedurae. These 4 species of nematode possess 3 large distinctive pointed structures at the end of the female tail. Each is only known from a single host species, and they are all either geographically or ecologically isolated from one another. Hedruris saltuarii is the second species in this genus to be described from an Australian reptile; it differs from Hedruris longispicula, and from 5 other species of Hedruris infecting reptiles, principally by a combination of its large size, the number and disposition of tubercles on the male tail, and the form of the spicules.