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

Abstract

Ectoparasitism is usually 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 information regarding these hosts in nature is scarce. In order to better understand natural reptilian hosts and their respective parasites, a project was initiated to collect, identify the host and parasite using specimens, probable hosts, from the collection of the Herpetological Collections of the Emílio Goeldi Museum of Pará (MPEG). The following species were examined: Boidae: Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758, Corallus caninnus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Epicrates cenchria (Linnaeus, 1758); Colubridae: Pseudoboa coronata Schneider, 180 I; Viperidae: Bothrops atrox (Linnaeus, 1758), B. moojeni Hoge, 1966, Bothropsis taeniata (Wagler, 1824); Gekkonidae: Thecadactylus rapicauda (Houttuyn, 1782); Iguanidae: Iguana iguana (Linnaeus, 1758); Teiidae: Ameiva ameiva (Linnaeus, 1758); Tropiduridae: Plica plica (Linnaeus, 1758), P umbra (Linnaeus, 1758), Tropidurus oreadicus Rodrigues, 1987, T. torquatus (Wied-Neuwied, 1820) and Uranoscodon superciliosus (Linnaeus, 1758). As a preliminary result of three months of activities, eight hosts of the Amblyomma tick (Jxodidae) were detected: Boa c. constrictor ("white boa"); Bothrops moojeni (jararaca), B. atrox ("jararaca") and Bothropsis taeniata ("jararaca-verde" or "periquitambóia"), Iguana iguana ("iguana"), Ameiva ameiva (vcalango-verde"), Tropidurus oreadicus ("calango-marroma") and Plica plica ("tamaquaré").