Helminth parasites and diet of Leptodactylus petersii (Steindachner, 1864) (Anura: Leptodactylidae) from Amapá state, Eastern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract

Leptodactylus petersii is a species of anuran found in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats and occurs from South America to southern North America and the West Indies. Studies involving the fauna of anuran parasites offer complementary information related to ecology. Thus, since there are few studies on the natural history of this species, this research aims to analyze the diet and the presence of endoparasitic helminths of Leptodactylus petersii from the state of Amapá, Brazil. We found 10 different taxonomic categories of prey in stomach contents, with the categories Hymenoptera (Formicidae) with 32.26 % (n = 12) being the most representative. Among the 12 individuals of L. petersii that were analyzed for helminth parasites, 83.3 % were infected with at least one species of helminths allocated to Phylum Nematoda. Our results report a new occurrence site for Rhabdias breviensis, originally described for Leptodactylus petersii in the state of Pará, as well as the second report of Ortleppascaris sp. in Brazil.

Keywords

• leptodactylidae
• diet
• nematodes
• amazon