Rev. Biol. Trop. 52(2): 313-354, 2004 www.ucr.ac.cr www.ots.ac.cr www.ots.duke.edu Checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica Beatriz Rodríguez-Ortíz1, Luis García-Prieto2, and Gerardo Pérez-Ponce de León2 1 Laboratorio de Helmintología, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica, e-mail: [email protected] 2 Laboratorio de Helmintología, Instituto de Biología, UNAM. Ap. Postal 70-153. C.P. 04510, México D.F., e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Received 12-VI-2002. Corrected 10-VII-2002. Accepted 16-VII-2002. Abstract: Helminth parasites of vertebrates have been studied in Costa Rica for more than 50 years. Survey work on this group of parasites is far from complete. We assembled a database with all the records of helminth parasites of wild and domestic vertebrates in Costa Rica. Information was obtained from different sources such as literature search (all published accounts) and parasite collections. Here we present a checklist with a parasite- host list as well as a host-parasite list. Up to now, 303 species have been recorded, including 81 species of dige- neans, 23 monogeneans, 63 cestodes, 12 acanthocephalans, and 124 nematodes. In total, 108 species of verte- brates have been studied for helminths in Costa Rica (31 species of fishes, 7 amphibians, 14 reptiles, 20 birds, and 36 mammals). This represents only 3.8% of the vertebrate fauna of Costa Rica since about 2,855 species of vertebrates occur in the country. Interestingly, 58 species (19.1 %) were recorded as new species from Costa Rica and most of them are endemic to particular regions. Considering the valuable information that parasites provide because it is synergistic with all the information about the natural history of the hosts, helminth parasites of ver- tebrates in Costa Rica should be considered within any initiatives to accomplish the national inventory of bio- logical resources. Starting with this compilation work, the Colección de Helmintos de Costa Rica (CHCR), host- ed at the Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, has re-emerged and it is our hope that it will have the standards of quality to assure that it will become the national depository of helminths in the country. Key Words: Helminths, Costa Rica, Biodiversity, Biological inventories, Parasites, Vertebrates. Costa Rica possesses a strong tradition in (UNAM) to contribute to the understanding of the study of parasites of domestic and wildlife the Costa Rican helminth parasite biodiversity vertebrates. For more than 50 years the and as a result, several papers were published helminth fauna of these hosts has been studied between the late 50´s and early 80´s (see by national parasitologists and microbiologists Caballero et al. 1957, Caballero and Brenes- (see for example Jiménez-Quirós and Brenes- Madrigal 1958, Brenes-Madrigal and Bravo- Madrigal 1957, Brenes-Madrigal and Jiménez- Hollis 1959, Lamothe-Argumedo and Brenes- Quirós 1959, Brenes-Madrigal et al. 1959a, Madrigal 1983). A first attempt to compile the Brenes-Madrigal et al. 1960a, Brenes-Madrigal information of the helminth parasites of Costa and Arroyo-Sancho 1962a y b, Brenes-Madrigal Rica was made by Brenes-Madrigal (1961) who et al. 1966). Since the very beginning in his presented up to that year a checklist of about career, Dr. Rodrigo Brenes-Madrigal, from the 150 species described as helminth parasites of Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de wild and domestic vertebrates as well as human Costa Rica, established a close collaboration beings. with Dr. Eduardo Caballero and his research However, the extraordinary biological rich- group from the Instituto de Biología, ness of Costa Rica has attracted the attention of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México several foreign parasitologists who have 314 REVISTA DE BIOLOGÍA TROPICAL contributed, more recently, to increase the Microbiología as the Colección de Helmintos amount of information about the helminths of de Costa Rica which should have the status of vertebrates in Costa Rica and in fact, a group of National Collection, and will become the depos- parasitologists leaded by Dr. Daniel Brooks itory of the helminth parasites of vertebrates and have developed a research program to inventory invertebrates in the near future, calling the atten- the parasites of particular regions of the country, tion to all national and foreign parasitologists, i.e. the Área de Conservación de Guanacaste that some of the specimens collected in the (ACG), in the province of Guanacaste (further country, and their published accounts should be information about the data base of parasites of deposited in this re-emerged collection. vertebrates in the ACG can be obtained at: http://brooksweb.zoo.utoronto.ca) (see for exam- ple Marques et al. 1996, Pérez-Ponce de León et MATERIALS AND METHODS al. 1998, Brooks et al. 1999, Platt 2000, Zelmer and Brooks 2000, Carreño et al. 2001, León- To accomplish the goals of this paper, we Régagnon et al. 2001, Choudhury et al. 2002). conducted a search in two kinds of sources: Of all the helminth specimens collected Parasite collections and bibliographic refer- from Costa Rican hosts, only a few were saved ences. Information from the Colección in the collection of the Facultad de Nacional de Helmintos in Mexico City, from Microbiología, University of Costa Rica and the U.S. National Parasite Collection, and the most of them have been deposited in foreign Parasitological Collection of the Harold W. parasite collections, i.e. the Colección Nacional Manter Laboratory of Parasitology, University de Helmintos, Mexico City, Mexico, the U.S. of Nebraska-Lincoln, both in the U.S.A., was National Parasite Collection, Beltsville, obtained with permission of their curators. All Maryland, U.S.A., and in the Harold W. Manter records from Costa Rican hosts were then Laboratory of Parasitology, Lincoln, Nebraska, extracted and entered in a database built on U.S.A., since there was not a national parasite Microsoft Access 2000. At the same time, a bib- collection in Costa Rica. However, this is liographical search was conducted in sources changing. Recently, the University of Costa such as Helminthological Abstracts and Rica has issued an initiative to support biologi- Biological Abstracts. We did put special atten- cal collections, among other kind of collections. tion to all published accounts done in Costa This interest is completely congruent with the Rican journals where some records have also initiative developed by Costa Rica to establish been published. These records were also an inventory of the biological diversity within entered in the database. The database will be its territory, and to facilitate their efforts to pre- available upon request to B.R.O., curator of the serve biodiversity. The starting point for plan- Colección de Helmintos de Costa Rica. ning the conservation and use of biodiversity is The checklist is divided in two parts. First the compilation of information through biologi- we present a parasite-host list. It is presented in cal surveys and inventories. Biological collec- phylogenetic order starting with Platyhelmin- tions are one of the most important components thes (Digenea, Monogenea and Cestoda), and of this inventory work, considering both the following with Acanthocephala and Nematoda. specimens preserved with high standards of Within each phylum and class, families are pre- quality and the information associated with each sented alphabetically and within family, species specimen (database) (Reaka-Kudla et al. 1997). are also presented in alphabetical order. To allo- So the objective of this paper is two-fold, to cate species in families we followed taxonomi- update all the available information about cal treatments such as Yamaguti (1963, 1971), helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica, Amin (1985, 1992), Schmidt (1986), Khalil et and to set the basis for the re-establishment of al. (1994), and Anderson et al. (1973-1984). the Colección Helmintológica de la Facultad de Each record contains the information about the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION 315 species name, authority and year, habitat, Invertebrate Zoology Collection, Ottawa, host(s) with the group to which it belongs in Canada; CHCR to the Colección de Helmintos parentheses (see symbology section), locality de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica; CNHE to (particular locality when possible and the Colección Nacional de Helmintos, Mexico province), and bibliographical reference. In City, Mexico; HWML to the Harold W. Manter those cases where specimens were deposited in Laboratory, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, some parasite collection, the collection acronym Nebraska, U.S.A.; IOC to the Instituto Oswaldo is mentioned. Finally, in most cases we present Cruz, Río de Janeiro, Brazil; USNPC to the U.S. notes to point out possible taxonomical National Parasite Collection, Beltsville, changes, synonyms, and new combinations of Maryland, U.S.A., and MNHG to the Muséum names. In all cases, we tried to consider the de Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, Switzerland. inclusion of the most well accepted taxonomical name following authorities. Most records are made from adults, but when larval forms were PLATYHELMINTHES recorded, it is pointed out after the parasite Gegenbaur, 1859 name in parentheses. The second part is the host-parasite list. Digenea This list is ordered following a traditional classi- (Van Beneden, 1858) fication of vertebrates (Pisces, Amphibia, Reptilia, Aves, and Mammalia). Within each ver- Acanthocolpidae Lühe, 1909 tebrate group, host species are presented in alphabetical order, with the list of helminths 1. Manteria brachydera (Manter, 1940) parasitizing each of them ordered in the same Caballero, 1950. way, indicating the group to which each Stomach, Caranx caballus, Oligoplites helminth parasite belongs (see symbology). We altus, Oligoplites refulgens (F), Golfo de used the name of the host as described in the Nicoya, Puntarenas (Ponciano-Rodríguez original papers, however we recognize that some 1986).