A new species of lungworm from the Atlantic Forest: n. sp. parasite of the endemic anuran .

are lung-dwelling parasites of anurans and some reptiles. Currently, 93 species are known to exist worldwide. The identification of species is based mainly on morphological traits of hermaphroditic females that generally have a very conserved morphology.

Patterns in parasite diversity and interactions with anurans from the Atlantic Forest.

Knowledge of parasite-host interactions is essential for understanding factors associated with the ecology and evolution of both groups. Some aspects, such as host size and phylogeny, as well as parasite specificity, are significant predictors that help unveil the parasite-host relationship. Thus, the goals of this study were: (1) to describe parasite diversity in regions of the Atlantic Forest; (2) to analyze which host characteristics can influence parasite richness of anuran's parasite component community; and (3) to investigate if the prevalence of parasite infection is related to specificity metrics (ecological and phylogenetic), number of infected hosts and parasite's abundance.

Prevalence and composition of haemosporidians in an avian community from a World Heritage area: Associations with host foraging strata and forest regeneration.

Forest regeneration is becoming a powerful tool to combat land conversion which covers 30 % of the Neotropical territory. However, little is known about the effect of forest regeneration on vector-borne diseases. Here, we describe the haemosporidian lineage composition across a successional gradient within an Atlantic Forest bird community.

and helminth parasite co-infection in invasive American bullfrogs in the Atlantic forest, Brazil.

Emerging infectious diseases threaten amphibian species across the globe. In Brazil, the American bullfrog () is a highly invasive species that can potentially transmit parasites and pathogens to native amphibians. This is the first assessment of co-infection of and helminth macroparasites in invasive populations of bullfrogs in South America.

High prevalence and concomitant infection of Ranavirus and Eustrongylides sp. in the invasive American Bullfrog in Brazil.

American Bullfrogs, Aquarana catesbeiana, are invasive anuran species distributed worldwide. One of the adverse impacts that this species causes in native communities is as a reservoir host for pathogens and parasites. Here, we report the coinfection of two pathogenic organisms in A.

A new snouted treefrog (Anura, Hylidae, Scinax) from fluvial islands of the Juruena River, southern Brazilian Amazonia.

Southern Amazonia is one of the less-explored regions by anuran taxonomists. We describe a small new species of snouted treefrog, genus Scinax, from this region, from a fluvial archipelago in the Juruena River, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The description is based on external morphology of adults and tadpoles, advertisement call and molecular data.

Diversity of Acanthocephala parasites in Neotropical amphibians.

Acanthocephalans constitute a small taxonomic group related to rotifers and specialized in a parasitic lifestyle. Anurans act as paratenic and definitive hosts and infections always occur trophically. Our objective is to describe and summarize the richness of acanthocephalans in Neotropical anurans.

Effect of Host-Switching on the Ecological and Evolutionary Patterns of Parasites.

Speciation via host-switching is a macroevolutionary process that emerges from a microevolutionary dynamic where individual parasites switch hosts, establish a new association, and reduce reproductive contact with the original parasite lineage. Phylogenetic distance and geographic distribution of the hosts have been shown to be determinants of the capacity and opportunity of the parasite to change hosts. Although speciation via host-switching has been reported in many host-parasite systems, its dynamic on the individual, population and community levels is poorly understood.

Ecological specificity explains infection parameters of anuran parasites at different scales.

Understanding the determinants of parasite infection in different hosts is one of the main goals of disease ecology. Evaluating the relationship between parasite–host specificity and infection parameters within host communities and populations may contribute to this understanding. Here we propose two measures of specificity that encompasses phylogenetic and ecological relatedness among hosts and investigated how such metrics explain parasite infection prevalence and mean infection intensity (MII).

Rich but random: parasite communities of snouted treefrog, Scinax fuscovarius (Anura: Hylidae), in Bodoquena Mountains, western Brazil.

Hosts represent discrete habitats that contain finite parasite communities, and individual hosts can be used as replicates in parasitism studies, such as investigations of the processes that mediate the formation of parasite communities. However, within a single host population, there may be singularities among individuals that affect parasite contact rates. Accordingly, the goals of the present study were to document the parasites associated with the small treefrog Scinax fuscovarius, to verify possible variation and co-occurrences in parasite infracommunities, and to assess the effects of host characteristics (size and sex) on infracommunity structure.

The roles of anurans in antagonistic networks are explained by life-habit and body-size.

Interactions among living beings are the structuring basis of ecosystems, and studies of networks allow us to identify the patterns and consistency of such interactions. Antagonistic networks reflect the energy flow of communities, and identifying network structure and the biological aspects that influence its stability is crucial to understanding ecosystem functioning. We used antagonistic anuran interactions-predator-prey and host-parasite-to assess structural patterns and to identify the key anuran species structuring these networks.

A New Species of Cosmocercoides (Ascaridida: Cosmocercidae) Parasitic in Tree Frogs from Southern Amazonia.

Cosmocercoides meridionalis n. sp. is described from the large and small intestines of 5 species of tree frogs belonging to the families Hylidae and Phyllomedusidae collected from 2 localities in Southern Amazonia.

Bird habitat preferences drive hemoparasite infection in the Neotropical region.

The role that the environment plays in vector-borne parasite infection is one of the central factors for understanding disease dynamics. We assessed how Neotropical bird foraging strata and habitat preferences determine infection by parasites of the genera Haemoproteus, Plasmodium, Leucocytozoon, and Trypanosoma and filarioids, and tested for phylogenetic signal in these host-parasite associations. We performed extensive searches of the scientific literature and created a database of hemoparasite surveys.

Anuran's habitat use drives the functional diversity of nematode parasite communities.

Understanding the processes responsible for structuring communities has been a challenge in ecology, and parasite communities are an excellent system to address this issue. The use of different diversity metrics can help us to understand the determinants of the structure of parasite communities, and in this sense, functional diversity indexes make it possible to measure the variability of organism traits in communities. In this study, we investigate how host body size and habitat use influence the functional diversity of nematode parasite infracommunities.

Disentangling the beta-diversity in anuran parasite communities.

There is great heterogeneity in parasite communities among hosts, understanding the nature and drivers of such variations is still a great scientific quest. Here, we analyse the variation in parasite communities by addressing the following questions: (i) What is the beta-diversity component (nestedness or turnover) that most contributes to beta diversity in parasite communities among anuran species? (ii) Does the beta diversity of parasite communities follow a non-random pattern? (iii) Is the dissimilarity in composition of parasite communities related to the phylogenetic or functional dissimilarity among hosts? We found that turnover in parasite assemblages was the main component of beta diversity, but the variation observed both in the total beta diversity and in its components did not differ from the respective null models. The dissimilarity among parasite communities was not related to the phylogenetic species variability or functional dissimilarity among anuran species for most localities.

The role of ecological opportunity in shaping host-parasite networks.

Despite the great interest to quantify the structure of host-parasite interaction networks, the real influence of some factors such as taxonomy, host body size and ecological opportunity remains poorly understood. In this paper, we investigate the general patterns of organization and structure of interactions in two anuran-parasite networks in the Brazilian Pantanal (seasonally flooded environment) and Atlantic Forest (non-flooded forest). We present theoretical models to test whether the structures of these host-parasite interaction networks are influenced by neutrality, host taxonomy and host body size.

Biological drivers of individual-based anuran-parasite networks under contrasting environmental conditions.

Understanding the mechanisms driving host-parasite interactions has important ecological and epidemiological implications. Traditionally, most studies dealing with host-parasite interaction networks have focused on species relationship patterns, and intra-population variation in such networks has been widely overlooked. In this study, we tested whether the composition of parasite communities of five anuran species (Leptodactylus chaquensis, Leptodactylus fuscus, Leptodactylus podicipinus, Pseudis paradoxa and Pithecopus azureus) vary across a pasture pond and a natural reserve site in south-eastern Pantanal, Brazil.

How deadly sarcophagid fly larvae are for anurans? New interactions and review to Neotropical region.

Myiasis is defined as the infestation of living or necrotic tissues of vertebrates by dipteran larvae. In amphibians, it can be caused by fly larvae belonging to families Calliphoridae, Chloropidae, Muscidae, and Sarcophagidae. In this study, we report new records and infestation intensity of myiasis in anurans from two localities of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil, and also present a list with myiasis caused by flesh fly Sarcophagidae species in anurans of the Neotropical region.

Parapharyngodon hugoi n. sp., a new nematode (Oxyuroidea: Pharyngodonidae) of the tree frog Trachycephalus typhonius (Linnaeus) from the Brazilian Pantanal, including a key to the congeners from amphibians of the American continent.

A new nematode Parapharyngodon hugoi n. sp. (Oxyuroidea: Pharyngodonidae) is described parasitising the large intestine of the tree frog Trachycephalus typhonius (Linnaeus) (Anura: Hylidae) from the wetlands of Pantanal, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Anuran helminth communities from contrasting nature reserve and pasture sites in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil.

Studies of amphibian macroparasites are relevant for the investigation of parasite community ecology and disease dynamics. Here, the parasite communities of five anuran species (Hypsiboas raniceps, Phyllomeduza azurea, Pseudis paradoxa, Leptodactylus fuscus and Leptodactylus podicipinus) are described from two habitats with different levels of preservation (pasture versus nature reserve). Specifically, we used mixed-effect models to test whether helminth species richness, prevalence and abundance differ between the two host collection sites.

How Many Parasites Species a Frog Might Have? Determinants of Parasite Diversity in South American Anurans.

There is an increasing interest in unveiling the dynamics of parasite infection. Understanding the interaction patterns, and determinants of host-parasite association contributes to filling knowledge gaps in both community and disease ecology. Despite being targeted as a relevant group for conservation efforts, determinants of the association of amphibians and their parasites in broad scales are poorly understood.

Diversity and patterns of interaction of an anuran-parasite network in a neotropical wetland.

We describe the diversity and structure of a host-parasite network of 11 anuran species and their helminth parasites in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil. Specifically, we investigate how the heterogeneous use of space by hosts changes parasite community diversity, and how the local pool of parasites exploits sympatric host species of different habits. We examined 229 anuran specimens, interacting with 32 helminth parasite taxa.

Estimates of coextinction risk: how anuran parasites respond to the extinction of their hosts.

Amphibians are known as the most threatened vertebrate group. One of the outcomes of a species' extinction is the coextinction of its dependents. Here, we estimate the extinction risk of helminth parasites of South America anurans.

Checklist of Helminth parasites of Amphibians from South America.

Parasitological studies on helminths of amphibians in South America have increased in the past few years. Here, we present a list with summarized data published on helminths of South American amphibians from 1925 to 2012, including a list of helminth parasites, host species, and geographic records. We found 194 reports of helminths parasitizing 185 amphibian species from eleven countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Equador, French Guyana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Helminth parasite communities of allopatric populations of the frog Leptodactylus podicipinus from Pantanal, Brazil.

Several factors may influence the structure of parasite communities in amphibian hosts. In this study, we describe the helminth parasites of three allopatric populations of the frog Leptodactylus podicipinus and test whether host size and sex were determinants of the structure and composition of the helminth communities. One hundred and twenty-three anurans were collected from three different study sites within the Pantanal wetlands and surveyed for helminth parasites.