Helminths and Symbiotic Protozoa of Blanchard's Cricket Frog, Acris blanchardi Harper, 1947 (Hylidae), from Michigan and Ohio, U.S.A.

Abstract

Abstract In total, 160 Blanchard's cricket frogs, Acris blanchardi, were collected from several southern Michigan locations (Grand Rapids Gravel Pit, Ives Gravel Pit, Ypsilanti wetland, unknown locations) and the St. Marys Fish Hatchery, Ohio, in 2001 through 2007 and examined for parasites. Acris blanchardi harbored the following helminths in parentheses from the following locations: Grand Rapids Gravel Pit (plerocercoid of Ophiotaenia sp., gravid Cosmocercoides sp.), Ives Gravel Pit (unidentified metacercaria, larval Spiroxys sp.), Ypsilanti wetland (larval Clinostomum sp., gravid Rhabdias ranae), and the St. Marys Fish Hatchery (larval Eustrongylides sp.). The reason few helminth species were found, and in general the reason their occurrences were infrequent and intensities low in Michigan and Ohio frogs, is that most frogs examined were young of the year and that this species has a short life span and a terrestrial diet. Frogs from the gravel pits commonly harbored the protozoan symbionts Nyctotherus ...