Helminths in Myomorph Rodents (Rodentia, Myomorpha) from the National Park “Smolny” and Its Surroundings (European Russia)

Abstract

The National Park “Smolny” is a large forest area, located in the center of European Russia. The helminth fauna of myomorph rodents was studied for the first time within the National Park in 2018–2020. Rodents were examined by the method of complete helminthological dissection. A total of 30 species of parasites were recorded in 11 rodent species: 6 trematodes, 11 cestodes and 13 nematodes. The trematode Plagiorchis maculosus (Rudolphi, 1802) was found in Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber, 1780) from the Russian fauna for the first time. Clethrionomys glareolus and Microtus arvalis (Pallas, 1779) are new hosts for P. maculosus and metacestode Versteria mustelae (Gmelin, 1790), respectively. The most widespread and eurybiont rodent species have the most diverse and rich helminth fauna, such as C/ glareolus (14 species), Apodemus agrarius (Pallas, 1771) (12) and Sylvaemus uralensis (Pallas, 1811) (10). The helminth fauna is less diverse in Sylvaemus flavicollis (Melchior, 1834), M. arvalis (7 species each), Microtus agrestis (Linnaeus, 1761) (5), Microtus subterraneus (de Selys-Longchamps, 1836) (3), Sicista betulina (Pallas, 1779) (2) and Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) (1). Comparative analysis the helminth fauna of small rodents from the National Park “Smolny” with micromammals from other regions of European Russia revealed that the high similarity with other areas reaches the helminth fauna of M. subterraneus, S. flavicollis, S. uralensis, S. betulina, A. amphibius and M. agrestis.

Keywords

• protected area
• parasitic worms
• micromammals
• Nematoda
• Cestoda
• Trematoda