Diversidade de metazoários parasitos de anuros na Floresta Amazônica sazonalmente seca no estado de Mato Grosso

Abstract

The Southern Amazon has a rich biological diversity. However, the growing threat to biodiversity due to advances in deforestation and expansion of agricultural areas may affect the knowledge of the ecological relationships of parasites and amphibians. Thus, the aim of this study was to describe the diversity and prevalence of anuran amphibian parasitic metazoan parasites in the Southern Amazonia. The study was conducted in a region of forest and open areas at Farm São Nicolau, Cotriguaçu municipality, in the northwest of Mato Grosso state. Amphibians were sampled in dense forest using the permanent trail system of the Biodiversity Research Program and also in open areas and adjoining bodies of water. Fifty-two anuran species belonging to 13 families were collected from arboreal, terrestrial and aquatic habits. Twenty-eight parasitic taxa belonging to four Phyla: Nematoda, Acanthocephala, Annelida (Oligochaeta) and Platyhelminthes (Cestoda and Trematoda Classes: Subclass: Digenea). The Nematoda Phylum presented the highest diversity, abundance and prevalence of parasites, followed by Platyhelminthes, Annelida and Acanthocephala. The highest parasitic richness in arboreal hosts was observed in Osteocephalus taurinus with 11 taxa, followed by Dryaderces inframaculatus with eight taxa and Phyllomedusa camba with seven. The most prevalent parasites were Cosmocercidae gen. sp. and Oswaldocruzia sp. In terrestrial anurans the highest parasitic richness was recorded in Rhinella margaritifera with 11 taxa, being the parasites Rhabdias sp., Cosmocercidae gen. sp. and Oswaldocruzia sp. the most prevalent. Only 15 of the 52 anuran species collected had not been studied for parasites. Twenty-four new parasite records were found for anuran species from the Amazon. Studies on anuran parasites are scarce in the Amazon region, and this was the first study of endoparasite metazoans in the Southern Amazon, being

important for the knowledge of the parasitic fauna and, later, to understand the parasite- host relationships for the region.