Folia Parasitologica 46[1] 59-66 (1999)

Rhabdias agkistrodonis (Nematoda: Rhabdiasidae): morphology, distribution and specificity

Yuriy I. Kuzmin

Department of Parasitology, Shmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 15 B. Khmelnitskii Street, Kiev - 30, 252601, Ukraine

Morphology of adult parasitic hermaphrodites, free-living males and females, rhabditoid and infective larvae of Rhabdias agkistrodonis Sharpilo, 1976 is described. Adult parasites of the species differ from corresponding stage of other Rhabdias species from snakes in the presence of short cuticular needle on the tip of the tail. Free-living generation stages of R. agkistrodonis have typical rhabditoid morphology. Homogonic infective larvae differ from heterogonic ones in the shape of stoma and oesophagus. Three new hosts: Halys viper (Agkistrodon halys) (Pallas) from Altaiskii Krai (Russia), Okinawa habu (Trimeresurus flavoviridis) (Hallowell) and T. elegans (Gray) from Okinawa Island (Japan) are added to the host range of R. agkistrodonis known previously exclusively from short-tailed viper (Agkistrodon blomhoffi) from the Russian Far East.

Keywords: Rhabdias, free-living generation, parasitic hermaphrodites, Far East, viperid snakes

Received: April 17, 1998; Accepted: August 25, 1998; Published: March 1, 1999  Show citation