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Acta Parasitologica, Vol.46, No. 4, 2001, 299-305
Aisien Siaka O.*, Ugbo Anthonia D., Ilavbare Aretha N., Ogunbor Omoyemwen - Endoparasites of amphibians from South-Western Nigeria.

Laboratory of Parasitology Research, Department of Zoology, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
*Corresponding author: E-mail: aisien@uniben.edu
ABSTRACT

An investigation of the endoparasites of amphibians from localities in the rainforest and mangrove forest zones of SW Nigeria was undertaken. Amphibians examined include Bufo regularis, Dicroglossus occipitalis, Ptychadena oxyrhynchus, Xenopus muelleri and Hemisus mamoratus. The investigation yielded the following parasites: a pentastomid of the Raillietiella sp.; Cestoda: Cephalochlamys namaquensis, Cephalochlamys sp. and Cylindrotaenia jaegerskioeldi; Trematoda: Diplodiscus fischthalicus, Progonimidiscus doyeri, Ganeo africana, Mesocoelium monodi, Haematoloechus exoterorchis and Prosotocus exovitellosus; Nematoda: Rhabdias bufonis, Cosmocerca ornata, Paracosmocerca sp., Chabaudus leberrei, Amplicaecum africanum, Camallanus dimitrovi, Camallanus sp., Batrachocamallanus xenopodis, Batrachocamallanus sp., Oswaldocruzia hoepplii and some immature filariids. Most of the parasites found in this study are being reported for the first time in Nigeria but a number of them have a distribution in other African countries. Amphibians collected from the rainforest zone contained more parasite species than those from the mangrove forest zone. Dicroglossus occipitalis harboured the highest number of parasite species, followed by B. regularis, X. muelleri and P. oxyrhynchus. A pentastomid, Raillietiella sp. was recovered from the lungs of some B. regularis collected in Benin City. This is the first report of a pentastomid from an amphibian definitive host in Africa.


KEY WORDS: Endoparasites, Amphibia, Nigeria
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