Sprattia venacavincola ( Spratt & Varughese, 1975 ) Chabaud & Bain, 1976

Spratt, David M., 2011, New records of filarioid nematodes (Nematoda: Filarioidea) parasitic in Australasian monotremes, marsupials and murids, with descriptions of nine new species 2860, Zootaxa 2860 (1), pp. 1-61 : 53-54

Sprattia venacavincola ( Spratt & Varughese, 1975) Chabaud & Bain, 1976

Dipetalonema venacavincola Spratt & Varughese, 1975, pp. 36–40 , figs.48–59, ( Trichosurus caninus ), Mt. Tamborine , Queensland.

Sprattia venacavincola (Spratt & Varughese) Chabaud & Bain, 1976, p. 368 , Presidente 1984, p.177, 189; Presidente et al. 1982, p. 36, 41; Figs. 7–8 ; Spratt et al. 1991, p. 27 – 28, 87; Viggers & Spratt 1995, p. 313, 322.

Type host. Trichosurus caninus (Marsupialia: Phalangeridae ).

Site in host: Inferior vena cava and hepatic veins above liver

Other material examined. From Trichosurus caninus: NSW : 2♀, ( N4328 ) 1.5 km W Murwillumbah .

Distribution and hosts. Despite post mortem examination of numerous common brushtail possums, Trichosurus vulpecula , from all States and Territories and a small number of mountain brushtail possums, T. cunninghami Lindenmayer, Dubach & Viggers, 2002 and short-eared possums, T. caninus (see Obendorf et al. 1997; Spratt unpubl.), adults of this species have been recorded exclusively in the latter host species ( Spratt & Varughese 1975;

Viggers & Spratt 1995). Trichosurus caninus was known formerly as the mountain brushtail possum (see Lindenmayer et al. 2002). The record of S. venacavincola in T. vulpecula in Queensland. in Viggers and Spratt (1995) is in error.

Remarks. Presidente et al. (1982) reported sheathed microfilariae in 25% of T. caninus , sequestered microfilariae in granulomatous nodules in the spleen and hepatic vasculitis in 6 of 57 animals at Clouds Creek, New South Wales. While there are no confirmed records of this parasite in T. vulpecula , sheathed microfilariae were recorded by Bolliger (1951) in the blood of 11 of 54 T. vulpecula at Moss Vale, New South Wales and Presidente et al. (1982) recorded hepatic vasculitis in 1 of 3 T. vulpecula at Clouds Creek. It is noteworthy that all three species of Sprattia appear to reside in blood vessels and have a relatively northern distribution in northern New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Figures

FIGURES 7–20. Breinlia (Breinlia) bigenera sp. nov. 7, Cephalic end, apical view. 8, Cephalic end, lateral view. 9, Anterior extremity, male, lateral view. 10, Microfilaria. 11, Right spicule and gubernaculum, lateral view. 12, Distal extremity left spicule, latero-ventral view. 13, Left spicule, lateral view. 14, Vulva, vagina and intestine female, lateral view. 15, Caudal end male, lateral view. 16, Posterior extremity male, latero-ventral view. 17, Cloacal papillae male, ventral view. 18, Caudal end female, lateral view. 19, Caudal extremity female, lateral view. 20, Caudal extremity female, ventral view. Scale bars: Fig. 10 = 20 µm, Fig. 16 = 25 µm, Figs. 7, 8, 11–13, 15, 17, 19, 20 = 50 µm, Figs 9, 14, 18 = 100 µm.