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Morphological study of Ophidascaris excavata Hsü & Hoeppli, 1931 (Ascaridida: Ascarididae) from Gloydius brevicaudus (Stejneger) (Reptilia: Viperidae)

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Abstract

Ophidascaris excavata Hsü & Hoeppli, 1931 is a poorly known ascaridid parasite reported from the short-tailed pit viper Gloydius brevicaudus (Stejneger) (Reptilia: Viperidae) in China. In the present paper, the detailed morphology of this nematode was studied using light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) based on newly collected material. The results revealed several important, but previously unreported, morphological features, including the presence of one pair of small, finger-like prolongations on each lip, narrow cervical alae beginning well posterior to the base of the ventrolateral lips and the second pair of postcloacal ventro-lateral papillae being double; in addition, there is no intestinal caecum. These supplementary morphological and morphometric data, especially the detailed morphological features obtained herein under SEM, would help us to understand the relationships of O. excavata with its congeners and enable us to diagnose this species more accurately.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr David Gibson (Natural History Museum, UK) for providing useful literature.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31572231) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2014T70227).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Hebei Province, College of Life Science, Hebei Normal University, 20 East Road of 2nd South Ring, Yuhua District, Shijiazhuang, 050024, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Li, Wen-Ting Zhao, Hui-Xia Chen, Yan-Ning Guo & Lu-Ping Zhang

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  1. Liang Li
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  2. Wen-Ting Zhao
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  3. Hui-Xia Chen
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  4. Yan-Ning Guo
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  5. Lu-Ping Zhang
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Correspondence to Liang Li.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All applicable institutional, national and international guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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Li, L., Zhao, WT., Chen, HX. et al. Morphological study of Ophidascaris excavata Hsü & Hoeppli, 1931 (Ascaridida: Ascarididae) from Gloydius brevicaudus (Stejneger) (Reptilia: Viperidae). Syst Parasitol 93, 69–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-015-9605-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11230-015-9605-9

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