Incidência de ectoparasitas em répteis da coleção herpetológica do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi: o carrapato ixodídeo amblyomma

Abstract

Ectoparasitism of reptiles by ticks is frequently observed in animals kept in zoos when, depending on the degree of infestation, it can cause serious consequences to the host. Reptiles kept in captivity, contrary to what occurs in nature, have a limited number of ectoparasites but there is little information about these hosts in nature. In order to better understand natural reptilian hosts and their respective parasites, we started a project to collect, identify the host and parasite, using specimens, probable hosts, from the collection of the Herpetological Collections of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG). The following species were examined: Boidae: Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758, Corallus caninnus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Epicrates cenchria (Linnaeus, 1758); Colubridae: Pseudoboa coronata Schneider, 1801; Viperidae: Bothrops atrox (Linnaeus, 1758), B. moojeni Hoge, 1966, Bothrops taeniata (Wagler, 1824); Gekkonidae: Thecadactylus rapicauda (Houttuyn, 1782); Iguanidae: Iguana iguana (Linnaeus, 1758); Teiídae: Ameiva ameiva (Linnaeus, 1758); Tropiduridae: Plica plica (Linnaeus, 1758), Plica umbra (Linnaeus, 1758), Tropidurus oreadicus Rodrigues, 1987, T. torquatus (Wied-Neuwied, 1820) and Uranoscodon superciliosus (Linnaeus, 1758). As a preliminary result of six months of activities, eight hosts of the Amblyomma tick (lxodidae) were detected: Boa constrictor ('white boa'); Bothrops moojeni ('jararaca'); Bothrops atrox ('jararaca') and Bothrops taeniata (''green jararaca' or 'parakeet'); Iguana iguana ('iguana'); Ameiva ameiva ('green calango'), Tropidurus oreadicus ('brown calango') and Plica plica ('tamaquaré').