Departamento de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Vale Do Salgado (UNIVS), Icó, Ceará, CEP 63430-000, Brazil.
Departamento de Engenharia E Meio Ambiente, Programa de Pós-Graduação Em Ecologia E Monitoramento Ambiental, Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), Rio Tinto, Paraíba, CEP 58297-000, Brazil.
Parasitol Res. 2024 Oct 1;123(10):337. doi: 10.1007/s00436-024-08340-9.
Pentastomida are lung parasites of a variety of hosts, mainly reptiles. Raillietiella is the genus with the largest number of species, whose taxonomic identification is still largely based on morphological data alone. In this classification, differences divide the genus into morphotypic groups. The Raillietiella parasites of insectivorous lizards, for example, are divided into "Group I" with species with hooks with sharp tips and "Group II" with posterior hooks with blunt tips. In the present work, we used molecular analysis to infer the morphological variation in hooks and size of specimens of Raillietiella mottae, parasites of several species of insectivorous lizards. Our results demonstrate that morphological differences comprise a phenotypic plasticity of a single species, whose variation is associated with host species, with females being larger and with hooks with blunt tips in nocturnal geckos and smaller ones with sharp tips in diurnal insectivorous lizards of different species, sizes, and habitats.
重口目是多种宿主的肺部寄生虫，主要是爬行动物。片形科是物种最多的属，其分类鉴定仍然主要依赖于形态学数据。在这种分类中，差异将该属分为形态型群。例如，食虫蜥蜴的重口目寄生虫被分为“第 I 组”，其特征是具有尖端锋利的钩子，和“第 II 组”，其特征是后钩具有钝端。在本工作中，我们使用分子分析来推断寄生在几种食虫蜥蜴中的雷氏片形科的 mottae 寄生虫的钩子形态变化和标本大小。我们的结果表明，形态差异构成了单一物种的表型可塑性，其变化与宿主物种有关，夜行动物的雌性较大，钩子具有钝端，而不同物种、大小和栖息地的昼行动物的食虫蜥蜴的钩子较小，且具有尖锐的尖端。
