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Helminth parasites of the grassland melomys (Muridae:Hydromyinae) from Australia and Papua New Guinea

journal contribution
posted on 2017-12-06, 00:00 authored by Lesley WarnerLesley Warner
This study documents the helminth assemblages of grassland melomys: Melomys burtoni (Ramsay, 1887), Melomys sp. cf. burtoni and Melomys lutillus (Thomas, 1913). In total, 22 helminth species comprising one cestode and 21 nematodes from 112 hosts were found. All the specimens of Physaloptera spp. examined proved to be Physaloptera banfieldi Johnson & Mawson, 1941 with P. trouhtoni Johnston & Mawson, 1941 the junior synonym. The dominant helminth group was the trichostrongyloid nematodes including Odilia melomyos (Mawson, 1961) and O. mackerrasae (Mawson, 1961). The most prevalent, O. melomyos, occurred in each of the host species across all areas sampled (New South Wales, Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea, Queensland and Western Australia). The helminth assemblage of M. burtoni from hosts from New South Wales and Queensland was the most diverse. The helminths of M. burtoni from the Northern Territory and of M. lutillus from Papue New Guinea were subsets of that assemblage. That of M. cf. burtoni from Western Australia, with only six helminth species, was not dominated by trichostrongyloids, three of the six species were not found in other localities, and, with Sorensen's Indices of 18.2% when compared with the helminths from Papua New Guinea and Northern Territory and 24% when compared with Queensland, was the least similar. No substantial differences were found between the helminth assemblages of the grassland melomys group, excluding M. cf. burtoni and Melomys cervinipes (Gould, 1852), the fawn footed melomys. This was reflected in a Sorensen's Index of 67.9% The time between the arrival of Melomys into Australia during the Pleistocene and the present day suggests that the trichostrongyloids O, melomyos, O mackerrasae and O mawsonae (Durette-Desset, 1969) may have travelled with their rodent hosts from New Guinea to Australia and other helminths in the assemblace may have been acquired in Australia.

Funding

Category 1 - Australian Competitive Grants (this includes ARC, NHMRC)

History

Volume

53

Issue

6

Start Page

369

End Page

374

Number of Pages

6

ISSN

0004-959X

Location

Collingwood

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Language

en-aus

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • No

External Author Affiliations

Faculty of Arts, Health and Sciences; TBA Research Institute;

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Journal

Australian journal of zoology.

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