Tongue Worm (Pentastomida) Parasites of North American Herpetofauna: Checklist of Species, Identification Key, and New State and Host Records from Mexico

• Published in: The Journal of parasitology Vol. 108; no. 6; pp. 582 - 594
• Main Authors: de Luna, Manuel, García-Barrios, Roberto, Barton, Diane P., Guajardo-Martínez, Gerardo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society of Parasitologists 01.11.2022; Allen Press Inc
• Subjects: Amphibians; Animals; Birds; Bothrops asper; Check lists; Checklist; Colubridae; Gekkonidae; Herpetofauna; Identification keys; Indigenous species; Linguatulids; Lizards; Lizards - parasitology; Mexico; New records; Parasite spillover; Parasites; Pentastomiasis; Pentastomida; Pentastomids; Porocephalidae; Reptiles; Snakes; Taxonomy; Tongue; U.S.A; Mexico; Iowa; United States > US; Texas; California; Florida; Alabama; North America; Linguatulids; Parasite spillover; Mexico; Pentastomiasis; Herpetofauna; Pentastomids; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0022-3395; 1937-2345
• DOI: 10.1645/22-52

An updated checklist of tongue worms (Pentastomida) which parasitize wild North American amphibians and reptiles is presented: a total of 14 species grouped in 6 genera, 4 families, and 2 orders are registered; these infect a total of 58 species of reptiles and 3 amphibians in the region. An illustrated identification key for the taxa listed is proposed. Kiricephalus coarctatus (Diesing, 1860) (Porocephalidae) is recorded for the first time in the snakes Arizona elegans Kennicott, 1859 (Colubridae); Micrurus tener Baird and Girard, 1853 (Elapidae); and Bothrops asper (Garman, 1884) (Viperidae); the exotic Raillietiella taegueselfiRiley, McAllister, and Freed, 1988 (Raillietiellidae) is recorded in the exotic lizard Hemidactylus frenatus Duméril and Bibron, 1836 (Gekkonidae) for the first time, and in Hemidactylus turcicus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Gekkonidae) for the first time in Mexico, this is also the first time it is recorded in a species of lizard native of the Americas, Sceloporus cyanogenys Cope, 1885 (Phrynosomatidae), this latter record represents a parasite spillover event; finally, Porocephalus stilesi Sambon, 1910 (Porocephalidae) is formally recorded for the first time in Mexico in the snake Bothrops asper.