Two new species of Hepatozoon (Apicomplexa: Hepatozoidae) parasitising species of Philothamnus (Ophidia: Colubridae) from South Africa
Date
2018Author
Cook, Courtney Antonia
Netherlands, Edward Charles
Smit, Nico Jacobus
Van As, Johann
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To date, only a few species of Hepatozoon Miller, 1908 have been described from amphibians and reptiles of South Africa,
including two species from anuran hosts, three from saurians, one from chelonians, and two from ophidians. Hepatozoon bitis (Fantham, 1925) and Hepatozoon refringens (Sambon et Seligmann, 1907), parasitising Bitis arientans (Merrem) and Pseudoaspis cana
(Linnaeus), respectively, were described in the early 1900s and since then there have been no further species of Hepatozoon described
from snakes in South Africa. Blood smears, used in peripheral blood haemogregarine stage morphometrics, and whole blood used in
molecular characterisation of haemogregarines were collected from the caudal vein of six snakes of three species, namely Philothamnus
hoplogaster (Günther), Philothamnus semivariegatus (Smith) and Philothamnus natalensis natalensis (Smith). For comparison, a comprehensive table summarising available information on species of Hepatozoon from African snakes is presented. Haemogregarines
found infecting the snakes from the present study were morphologically and molecularly different from any previously described from
Africa and are thus here described as Hepatozoon angeladaviesae sp. n. and Hepatozoon cecilhoarei sp. n. Both haemogregarine species were observed to cause considerable dehaemoglobinisation of the host cell, in case of infection with H. angeladaviesae resulting
in a characteristic peripheral undulation of the host cell membrane and karyorrhexis. To the authors’ knowledge, these are the first haemogregarines parasitising snakes of the genus Philothamnus Smith described using both morphological and molecular characteristics
in Africa
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http://hdl.handle.net/10394/31940https://folia.paru.cas.cz/pdfs/fol/2018/01/04.pdf
https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2018.004