Structure of the Parasite Infracommunity of Hoplobatrachus tigerinus Daudin, 1803 from YSR Kadapa District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Three hundred specimens of Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Daudin, 1803), 133 females and 167 males, collected in YSR Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh, India, from 2013 to 2015, were examined for the presence of metazoan parasites. One hundred seventy-two (57.3%) frogs were parasitized by at least one or more metazoan parasite species. Nine species of parasites were collected: 6 digeneans, 1 cestode and 2 nematodes. All the recovered parasites are satellite species with less than 33% prevalence. Digeneans are the most abundant group of parasites accounting for 89.9% of total parasites. Hoplobatrachus tigerinus is a new host record for Paracephalogonimus minutum. Paracephalogonimus minutum is the dominant species followed by Tremiorchis ranarum. The metazoan parasite species of H. tigerinus showed the typical aggregated pattern of distribution of most parasite systems. Only Cosmocercoides variabilis–Oswaldocruzia filiformis (0.23), Paracephalogonimus minutum—Ophiotaenia tigrina (0.13), Diplodiscus amphichrus–Ohiotaenia tigrina (0.13), Cosmocercoides variabilis–Mehraorchis ranarum (0.11) and Ganeo tigrnum–Diplodiscus amphichrus (0.11) showed significant interspecific associations while the other pairs showed very less to no association. There was a very negligible influence of host snout-vent length on the parasitism however; there is no influence of host sex on the parasitic abundance.