Barton D P
Division of Zoology and Tropical Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.
Int J Parasitol. 1999 Jun;29(6):921-6. doi: 10.1016/s0020-7519(99)00057-0.
Less than 50% of Australian amphibians have been recorded as hosts for helminth parasites. Despite developments in parasite community ecology in amphibians elsewhere, Australia lags behind with only two publications on this subject. Reasons advanced for this are that much of the collecting and taxonomic studies were conducted earlier this century before more recent discoveries of host genera and species as well as species complexes in the amphibian fauna. Consequently, there is a need for re-collection of hosts and parasites, and taxonomic revision of the parasites. In addition, as shown in this study, the parasite fauna in Australian amphibians is depauperate. Composition of the parasite fauna was largely dependent on the ecological associations of the host animal species. Frogs were infected with few helminth species and these occurred at low intensity, indicating, as in Europe and North America, that a depauperate fauna is also characteristic of amphibians in tropical regions.
据记录，澳大利亚两栖动物中感染蠕虫寄生虫的比例不到50%。尽管其他地方的两栖动物寄生虫群落生态学已有进展，但澳大利亚在这一领域却落后了，关于该主题的出版物仅有两篇。对此提出的原因是，大部分采集和分类学研究是在本世纪初进行的，而后来才发现了两栖动物区系中的宿主属、物种以及物种复合体。因此，有必要重新采集宿主和寄生虫，并对寄生虫进行分类学修订。此外，如本研究所示，澳大利亚两栖动物的寄生虫区系种类匮乏。寄生虫区系的组成在很大程度上取决于宿主动物物种的生态关联。青蛙感染的蠕虫种类很少，且感染强度较低，这表明，与欧洲和北美一样，种类匮乏的寄生虫区系也是热带地区两栖动物的特征。
