Abstract
The National Park “Smolny” is a large forest area, located in the center of European Russia. The helminth fauna of myomorph rodents was studied for the first time within the National Park in 2018–2020. Rodents were examined by the method of complete helminthological dissection. A total of 30 species of parasites were recorded in 11 rodent species: 6 trematodes, 11 cestodes and 13 nematodes. The trematode Plagiorchis maculosus (Rudolphi, 1802) was found in Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780) from the Russian fauna for the first time. Clethrionomys glareolus and Microtus arvalis (Pallas, 1779) are new hosts for P. maculosus and metacestode Versteria mustelae (Gmelin, 1790), respectively. The most widespread and eurybiont rodent species have the most diverse and rich helminth fauna, such as C/ glareolus (14 species), Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) (12) and Sylvaemus uralensis (Pallas, 1811) (10). The helminth fauna is less diverse in Sylvaemus flavicollis (Melchior, 1834), M. arvalis (7 species each), Microtus agrestis (Linnaeus, 1761) (5), Microtus subterraneus (de Selys-Longchamps, 1836) (3), Sicista betulina (Pallas, 1779) (2) and Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) (1). Comparative analysis the helminth fauna of small rodents from the National Park “Smolny” with micromammals from other regions of European Russia revealed that the high similarity with other areas reaches the helminth fauna of M. subterraneus, S. flavicollis, S. uralensis, S. betulina, A. amphibius and M. agrestis.
Highlights
Parasitic organisms are an integral part of natural biocenoses
If during the studies there were less than 15 individuals of one species, we indicate the number of infected individuals and the total number of rodents studied in parentheses, not the percentage of invasion; one or more animals with the same intensity of invasion are infected; P—prevalence; %, IR—intensity range; MA—mean abundance
The trematode P. maculosus was found in C. glareolus in the fauna of Russia for the first time
Summary
Parasitic organisms are an integral part of natural biocenoses They play an important role in the biosphere and act as one of the factors of biodiversity formation [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Helminths live in all vertebrates, including small rodents. Their species composition, age and seasonal infection rates serve to understand the changes that may occur in ecosystems [8,9,10]. In the context of global anthropogenic transformations of natural ecosystems, only protected areas are the most favorable places for animals to live in [11,12,13,14,15], the purpose of which is to preserve the biodiversity of forest ecosystems [16,17,18,19,20,21]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
