Two new species of Neofoleyellides (Nematoda: Onchocercidae) parasitising anuran amphibians in South Africa

Yuriy Kuzmin; Edward C Netherlands; Louis H du Preez; Roman Svitin

doi:10.1016/j.ijppaw.2021.02.018

Two new species of Neofoleyellides (Nematoda: Onchocercidae) parasitising anuran amphibians in South Africa

Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2021 Mar 18:14:298-307. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2021.02.018. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Authors

Yuriy Kuzmin^{1

2}, Edward C Netherlands², Louis H du Preez^{2

3}, Roman Svitin^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology NAS of Ukraine, 15 B. Khmelnytskogo str., 01030, Kyiv, Ukraine.
² African Amphibian Conservation Research Group, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom, 2520, South Africa.
³ South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Somerset Street, Machanda, 6140, South Africa.

Abstract

The genus Neofoleyellides was recently erected for a single species, Neofoleyellides boerewors from bufonid hosts in South Africa. In present study, we discovered two undescribed species of Neofoleyellides, namely N. steyni n. sp. and N. martini n. sp. parasitising frogs Amietia delalandii and Leptopelis natalensis, respectively. Both species differ from N. boerewors and between each other in shape and relative length of oesophagus, size of spicules, arrangement of genital papillae and morphology of caudal alae in males. Phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated fragments of the 18S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (18S rRNA) and the Cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI) genes confirmed both species as Neofoleyellides sister to Icosiellinae and Oswaldofilariinae.

Keywords: Amietia; Amphibia; Anura; KwaZulu-natal; Leptopelis; Limpopo; Nematode; Neofoleyellides; South Africa.