Pentastomids from African Reptiles and Mammals and from Reptiles of Florida Island, British Solomon Islands (South Pacific)

Abstract

Parasites upon which this report is based were obtained from vertebrate hosts in widely separated geographical localities. Most of them are a part of an extensive collection of metazoan parasites taken by the junior author during the examination of several thousands of hosts in Egypt and the Sudan (1948-1953). In this survey all vertebrate groups were well represented. Specimens taken earlier by him (1943-1945) however, are from a collection of parasites obtained from 300 hosts, mostly reptiles and amphibians, in the South Pacific. Although hosts in the latter series were examined in both the New Hebrides and the British Solomon Islands, pentastomids were recovered only from reptiles on Florida Island in the latter island group. Pentastomids were found in only a small percentage of hosts examined. However, the present study adds to the distribution and host records for several of the known pentastomids, and a new genus with 2 new species is described. This paper adds much needed information based on actual field collections of this group of invertebrates which has not received the attention accorded most other invertebrate groups. While many works have dealt with the Pentastomida, most of them have not been based on extensive field collections. One of the most complete is that of Heymans (1935) and the reader is referred to this paper for the most complete bibliography available.