Herpetology Notes, volume 14: 765-767 (2021) (published online on 10 May 2021)
A new record of the tongue worm Kiricephalus coarctatus (Diesing, 1850) parasitising the Texas indigo snake Drymarchon melanurus erebennus (Cope, 1861) in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, northeast Mexico
Manuel de Luna1, Roberto García-Barrios1, Daniel Montoya-Ferrer1, and Gerardo Cuéllar-Rodríguez1,*
Central American Indigo Snakes Drymarchon parasites: flukes (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda; 16 adults melanurus (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) are in the mouth and throat area), spiny headed worms diurnal colubrids that inhabit the American continent (Acanthocephala; around 300 cystacanths were found from southern Texas (USA) in the Atlantic versant, and embedded in the tissue of the caudal area), and tongue southern Sonora (Mexico) in the Pacific versant, south worms (Pentastomida; 2 adult females were found inside throughout northeastern, western and southern Mexico, the lung). The snake was deposited in the Herpetological Central America, as far south as Venezuela, Ecuador, and Collection of the Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas of extreme northwestern Peru in northern South America the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) (Wüster et al., 2001; Cisneros-Heredia, 2006; Heimes, and given the voucher #8450, whereas the parasites 2016). There are five recognised subspecies (Uetz et al., were deposited in the Entomology Lab of the Facultad 2019) of which the Texas Indigo Snake Drymarchon de Ciencias Forestales at UANL, the tongue worms in melanurus erebennus (Cope, 1861) is found in Texas in particular were given the voucher FCF-PARAS001. the USA as well as in eastern Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, On 14 August 2020, another adult male D. m. erebennus northern Hidalgo, northern Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, (around 180 cm in total length) was found dead on the Tamaulipas, and northern Veracruz in Mexico (Smith, road near “La Bocatoma” (23.0149ºN, -99.1246ºW; 1941 as Drymarchon corais; Heimes, 2016). WGS 1984) in the municipality of Gómez Farías, state Several species of helminths that use D. melanurus of Tamaulipas, northeast Mexico. The specimen was as a host have been identified, mainly roundworms collected and necropsied. It was found to have mammal (Nematoda) and flukes (Platyhelminthes: Trematoda) hair in its stomach and only hosted tongue worms (Paredes et al., 2008 as D. corais), but also the tongue (Pentastomida) as parasites: one adult female was found worm Railletiella furcocercum (Diesing, 1839) inside the lung, and several infective cysts were found (Pentastomida: Railletiellida: Railletiellidae) (Ali et al., in the stomach lining, but it is unknown if they belong 1984 as D. corais; Paredes et al., 2008 as D. corais). to the same species of tongue worm. The snake and the On 6 August 2018, an adult male D. m. erebennus (233 tongue worms (the adult female and three cysts) were cm in total length) was found dead due to anthropogenic deposited in the aforementioned collections and given causes near “Rancho La Palma” (25.6761ºN, - the voucher #8511 and FCF-PARAS013, respectively. 99.4597ºW; WGS 1984) in the municipality of Los All three adult female tongue worms were identified as Ramones, state of Nuevo Leon, northeast Mexico. The specimen was collected and necropsied. It lacked Kiricephalus coarctatus (Diesing, 1850) (Porocephalida: stomach contents and hosted three different kinds of Porocephalidae): the family was identified using the key present in Brues and Melander (1932), the genus was identified using the keys of Fain (1961) and Self (1969), and finally, the species was identified comparing the 1 Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Manuel L. Barragán specimens with the diagnoses present in Riley and Self Avenue, Ciudad Universitaria, San Nicolás de los Garza, (1980). The tongue worms of the genus Kiricephalus are Nuevo León 66455, México. unusual in that their life cycle involves three vertebrate * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] hosts: an amphibian, lizard or mammal as the first © 2021 by Herpetology Notes. Open Access by CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. intermediate host, a snake as the second intermediate 766 Manuel de Luna ������
in the state of Nuevo Leon (Paredes et al., 2008). The record for Tamaulipas here described represents a new state record for this species of tongue worm.
Acknowledgments. We are very thankful to Jorge Madrazo Fanti who helped us obtaining the second specimen. We also thank the reviewers Katya Ortiz and Sergio Armando Alanís, as well as the anonymous reviewers who contributed to the betterment of this publication.
References
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Accepted by Andrew Durso