On two new species of Mehraorchis Srivastava, 1934 (Digenea: Pleurogenidae) infecting frogs of the South Western Ghats, India

Keloth Shinad,Puthanpurayil Kandambeth Prasadan

doi:10.21472/bjbs(2021)081804

Abstract

Two new species of digenetic trematodes of the genus Mehraorchis infecting the freshwater frogs, Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis and Hoplobatrachus tigerinus inhabiting the South Western Ghats, India, are described with illustrations and details on the prevalence, intensity and mean abundance of infection of Mehraorchis janardanii n. sp. and Mehraorchis euphlycti n. sp. are added. M. janardanii n. sp. and M. euphlycti n. sp. are differentiated from other Mehraorchis species based on the differences in their morphology and morphometry. The prevalence of M. janardanii n. sp. in E. cyanophlyctis is 1.29%, the intensity is 13 and the mean abundance is 0.16. The prevalence of infection of M. euphlycti n. sp. in E. cyanophlyctis is 0.64% and in H. tigerinus 6.06%, the intensity of infection is one in both the hosts and the mean abundance is 0.006 and 0.06, respectively.

Highlights

The common water skipper frog Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider, 1799), occupies pools and standing waters in the paddy fields and sub-mountainous areas of the Western Ghats
This paper describes the second report of M. ranarum from Kerala
Mehraorchis janardanii n. sp. (Figure 2) Description is based on the holotype and 25 paratypes

Summary

Introduction

The common water skipper frog Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider, 1799), occupies pools and standing waters in the paddy fields and sub-mountainous areas of the Western Ghats. It is usually seen at the fringes of water bodies with their eyes over water, which is floating in nature and is broadly distributed throughout South Asia (Frost, 2014). The large green frog Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Daudin, 1803) is semi-aquatic in nature, living in the edges of rivers, paddy fields, ponds, reservoirs and swamps with floating vegetation. Two undescribed species of the genus Mehraorchis Srivastava, 1934 infecting.

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Conclusion