Interrelationship between Ectoparasites and Wild Rodents from Tijucas do Sul, State of Paraná, Brazil
Vol. 93(6): 719-725
Darci Moraes Barros-Battesti/+, Márcia Arzua*, Pedro Marcos Linardi**, José Ramiro Botelho**, Ives José Sbalqueiro***
Laboratório de Artrópodes, Instituto Butantan, Av. Vital Brazil 1500, 05503-900 São Paulo, SP, Brasil *Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Departamento de Zoológico, Prefeitura de Curitiba, PR, Brasil **Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil ***Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brasil
Sixteen species of ectoparasites were collected from 50 wild rodents, from August 1990 to August 1991, in an area of Araucaria augustifolia forest, in the municipality of Tijucas do Sul, State of Paraná, Brazil. Ectoparasites infested 98% of the rodents, with the highest indices of infestation found in the dry-cool season. Species that occurred in single or multiple infestations were recorded. Ectoparasite/host associations were significant (p<0.01) for Gigantolaelaps wolffsohni/Oryzomys nigripes, Polygenis pradoi/Oxymycterus sp. and Amblyopinus sp./Oxymycterus sp. The following represent new host records: Polygenis (Polygenis) tripus from Akodon serrensis and Hoplopleura sciuricola from Sciurus aestuans. New geographic records are given for two species of flea and one sucking lice.
Key words: ectoparasites - mites - fleas - sucking lice - staphylinid beetles - wild rodents
In Brazil, the greatest amount of information on ectoparasites of small wild mammals has been obtained from municipalities of the State of Minas Gerais: Viçosa (Whitaker Jr & Mumford 1977), Caratinga (Botelho 1978), Belo Horizonte (Linardi et al. 1984, Botelho & Linardi 1996), Juiz de Fora (Linardi et al. 1987), Tiradentes (Lopes et al. 1989) and Serra da Canastra National Park (Whitaker Jr & Dietz 1987), with simultaneous records of mites, fleas and lice. Other Brazilian records of ectoparasites on wild mammals include Ilha Grande, State of Rio de Janeiro (Guitton et al. 1986), Ilha de Maracá, State of Roraima (Linardi et al. 1991a) and Florianópolis, State of Santa Catarina (Linardi et al. 1991b).
Concerning Paraná, except for previous studies of Guimarães (1945), Ribeiro (1966/1967), and Barros and Baggio (1992) on mammal ticks, only the municipalities of Mandirituba and Foz do Iguaçu have been studied in relation to the simultaneous occurrence of ectoparasites, even though Barros-Battesti and Arzua (1997) have recently presented a list of ectoparasites from marsupials in some of this state's biomes.
This study adds new information on ectoparasites from wild rodents in Paraná, in relation to the intensity and prevalence of infestation by host, the associations of ectoparasites, as well as the frequency of the ectoparasites on the respective hosts.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Mr Pedro Scherer Neto, Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, for the collection opportunity at Panagro Farm.
Table I | Table II | Table III | Table IV | Table V
This work was supported in part by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).
+Corresponding author. Fax: +55-11-815.1505. E-mail: dbattesti@hotmail.com
Received 16 January 1998
Accepted 13 July 1998
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