Abstract
In a survey of 3457 amphibians and reptiles, collected in the Napo area of the Oriente region of Ecuador, 27 animals were found to be infected with acanthocephalans. Of 2359 Anura, 17 animals were infected with cystacanth stages of Oligacanthorhynchus spp., one frog with cystacanths of Acanthocephalus and one, Hyla fasciata, with a neoechinorhynchid, Pandosentis napoensis n. sp. Of 1098 Squamata, two colubrid snakes were infected with cystacanths of Oligacanthoryrchus sp., two with cystacanths of Centrorhynchus spp. and one with unidentifiable cystacanths; one lizard, a gekkonid, was infected with cystacanths of Centrorhynchus sp. and one lizard, an iguanid, with an Oligacanthoryhnchus sp. The new species, P. napoensis can be differentiated from its congenor Pandosentis iracundus in having a proboscis formula of 14 rows of 3 hooks as compared with 22 rows of 4 hooks and the lemnisci longer than the proboscis receptacle rather than the same length or shorter. Pandosentis napoensis may represent a host capture from fresh water fishes. Cystacanths of Centrorhynchus and Oligacanthorhynchus have been previously reported from South American amphibians and reptiles. Surprisingly, no adult Acanthocephalus were collected in this survey, although five species are known to occur in South American amphibians and reptiles.
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