Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T07:03:13.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Studies on ascaridoid nematodes in pythons: speciation of Ophidascaris in the Oriental and Australian regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

J. F. A. Sprent
Affiliation:
Department of Parasitology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Q4067, Brisbane, Australia

Extract

Ophidascaris filaria sensu lato previously redefined in the wide sense is now subdivided into four species as follows: (1) O. filaria sensu stricto in Python molurus in India; (2) O. infundibulicola (Linstow, 1903 with emended definition) in P. reticulatus in Singapore, Malaya and Thailand; (3) O. baylisi Robinson, 1934, emend. in P. reticulatus in Malaya, Singapore and Thailand; (4) O. moreliae (new species) in Morelia spilotes variegatus and Aspidites melanocephalus in Australia. The four species are differentiated particularly by their colour, the pattern of the folds of the intestine, the relative length of the spicules and vagina, the eggs, and the extent of development of the larvae in mice.

The writer gratefully acknowledges the cooperation of Professor A. G. Chabaud and his colleagues at the Museum National d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, in giving helpful suggestions and criticism and also for making Dujardin's specimens and drawings available. Thanks are also due to the following: Dr G. Hartwich, Zoological Museum of the Humboldt University of Berlin, for sending syntypes of Ascaris rubicunda; to Dr V. Zaman, Singapore, Dr Fred Dunn, Kuala Lumpur, Dr A. R. Omar, Ipoh, Dr Pradon Chatikavanij and Dr Suvajra Vajrasthira of Bangkok, Dr A. S. Dissanaike, Colombo, and Dr G. A. Schad, Calcutta, for help in obtaining specimens. Facilities to carry out this work were provided by the south-east Asian Ministers of Education Council at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, through the Dean, Professor Chamlong Harinasuta, Bangkok. Acknowledgement is also made to the able technical assistance of Miss Marian Hollis. Financial assistance for this study was provided under grants from the Australian Research Grants Committee and the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare no. A 107023–02.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Baylis, H. A. (1920). On the classification of the Ascaridae. II. The Polydelphis; group with some account of other ascarids parasitic in snakes. Parasitology 12, 411–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dujardin, F. (1845). Histoire naturelle des helminthes ou vers intestinaux, 654pp. Paris: Librairei encyclopédique de Roret.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartwich, G. (1964). Die Typen parasitischer Nematoden in der Helminthen-Sammlung des Zoologischen Museums in Berlin. Mitt. zool. Mus. Berl. 40, 5565.Google Scholar
Hsü, H. F. & Hoeppli, R. J. C. (1931). Parasitic nematodes mostly from snakes collected in China. Natn. med. J. China 17, 567–88.Google Scholar
Hsü, H. F. & Hoeppli, R. J. C. (1938). Miscellaneous observations on ten species of parasitic nematodes. Chin. med. J. Suppl. 2, 451–60.Google Scholar
Johnston, T. H. & Mawson, P. M. (1948). Some new records of nematodes from Australian snakes. Rec. S. Aust. Mus. 9, 101–6.Google Scholar
Khera, S. (1954). Nematode parasites of some Indian vertebrates. Indian J. Helminth. 6, 27133.Google Scholar
Kutzer, E. & Grünberg, W. (1965). Parasitologie und Pathologie der Spulwurmkrankheit der Schlangen. Zentbl. VetMed. 12, 155–75.Google Scholar
Kutzer, E. & Lamina, J. (1965). Zur Biologie einiger Schlangen-Ascariden. Z. ParasitKde 25, 211–30.Google Scholar
Linstow, O. F. B. von (1903). Parasiten, meistens Helminthen, aus Siam. Arch. mikrosk. Anat. Entwgesch Mech. 62, 108–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mawson, P. M. (1955). Some parasites of Australian vertebrates. Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 78, 17.Google Scholar
Ortlepp, R. J. (1922). On the hatching and migration in a mammalian host of larvae of ascarids normally parasitic in cold-blooded vertebrates. J. trop. Med. Hyg. 25, 97100.Google Scholar
Parona, C. (1898). Elminti raccolti dal Dott. Elio Modigliani alle isole Mentawei, Engano e Sumatra. Annali Mus. civ. Stor. nat. Giacomo Doria 39, 2s. 19, 102–24.Google Scholar
Railliet, A. & Henry, A. (1910). Sur quelques helminthes du ‘Python Sebae’ (Gmelin). Bull. Soc. Path exot. 3, 94–8.Google Scholar
Retzius, A. A. (1830). Beskrifning öfver en ny art Spolmask, funnen hos Python bivittatus, jemte anatomiska anmärkningar. Ksvenskar VetenskAcad. Handl., Stockholm (1829) (1), pp. 103–8.Google Scholar
Robinson, V. C. (1934). On a collection of parasitic worms from Malay. I. Nematodes (superfamilies Ascaroidea and Oxyuroidea). Parasitology 26, 481–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, A. F. (1866). Monographie der nematoden, 357 pp. Berlin: Reimer.Google Scholar
Schuurmans-Stekhoven, J. H. (1937). Parasitic nematoda. Explor. Pare natn. Albert. Miss. G. F. de Witte, pp. 340.Google Scholar
Shipley, A. E. (1903). On the ento-parasites collected by the ‘Skeat Expedition’ to Lower Siam and the Malay Peninsula in the years 1899–1900. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 2, 145–56.Google Scholar
Sprent, J. F. A. (1969). Studies on ascaridoid nematodes in pythons: redefinition of Ophidascaris filaria and Polydelphis anoura. Parasitology 59, 129–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stossich, M. (1895). Notizie elmintologiche. Boll. Soc. adriat. Sci. nat. 16, 3346.Google Scholar
Wu, H. W. & Hu, Y. T. (1938). Parasitic nematodes from Hainan. Syrensia, 9 (5/6), 275–97.Google Scholar