Helminth parasites of Hypsiboas prasinus (Anura: Hylidae) from two Atlantic forest fragments, São Paulo State, Brazil.

Abstract

Seventy-seven males of Hypsiboas prasinus from 2 Atlantic forest fragments in the municipalities of Botucatu and Jundia&#xed;, S&#xe3;o Paulo State, Brazil, were examined for endoparasites. The frogs were captured in summer (January until March) and winter (July/August) of 2008 and 2009. Thirty-three males (75%) from Botucatu were infected with Rhabdias cf. fuelleborni , cosmocerciid nematodes, and Cylindrotaenia americana . Twenty-five tree frogs (78.5%) from Jundia&#xed; were infected by Rhabdias cf. fuelleborni , Physaloptera sp., and cosmocerciid nematodes. Only cosmocerciid nematodes presented a statistically significance difference in prevalence (z &#x200a;=&#x200a; 4.345; P < 0.001) and mean abundance (t &#x200a;=&#x200a; 562.0; P < 0.001) between Botucatu and Jundia&#xed; during the winter. Also, the cosmocerciids exhibited higher mean abundance (t &#x200a;=&#x200a; 196.0; P &#x200a;=&#x200a; 0.034) in winter when compared with summer at the Jundia&#xed; site. Moreover, to our knowledge, this is the first report of C. americana in the Brazilian Hylidae. This study presents 4 new records of nematodes in H. prasinus .