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Some blood parasites of the Brazilian lizards Plica umbra and Uranoscodon superciliosa (Iguanidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

R. Lainson
Affiliation:
The Wellcome Parasitology Unit, Caixa Postal 3, Instituto Evandro Chagas, Belém, Pará, Brazil
J. J. Shaw
Affiliation:
The Wellcome Parasitology Unit, Caixa Postal 3, Instituto Evandro Chagas, Belém, Pará, Brazil
I. Landau
Affiliation:
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoire de Zoologie (Vers), 57, Rue Cuvier, Paris Ve, France

Extract

An examination of 235 Plica umbra and 167 Uranoscodon superciliosa (Sauria: Iguanidae) from Belém, Pará, Brazil, has revealed a number of hitherto undescribed blood parasites. These include Fallisia audaciosa, F. simplex, Garnia multiformis, Plasmodium vacuolatum and Trypanosoma plicae spp.nov., all in P. umbra, and G. uranoscodoni sp.nov. in U. superciliosa. In addition, both species of lizards showed occasional Eperythrozoon and microfilaria infections. Among the haemosporines, F. audaciosa is particularly interesting in its restriction to the neutrophils; and G. multiformis for its early development in erythroblasts of the bone-marrow, and its variable morphology in subsequent stages of the infection in the peripheral blood. Mixed infections of the different haemosporines resulted in 18 combinations of parasites in P. umbra, indicating the importance of examining a large number of these animals when preparing descriptions of the individual organisms. T. plicae is a large, broad trypanosome, averaging ∼ 57·0 × 16·0 μm. Isolation of the parasite was made from four out of six P. umbra, after the culture of heart blood in NNN medium: the fact that none of the four positive lizards showed detectable trypanosomes in the peripheral blood suggests a high incidence of occult infections. The incidence among the remaining 229 P. umbra, as given by the direct examination of blood-films, was only 10·0%.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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