Monanema australis Spratt, 2008

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 : 47

Monanema australis Spratt, 2008

Monanema australis Spratt, 2008 pp. 1–6 , Figs. 1–9 , from Melomys cervinipes and Uromys caudimaculatus Severin Ck., Danbulla State Forest, north Queensland.

Type host. Melomys cervinipes (Eutheria: Muridae ).

Other hosts. Melomys burtoni (Ramsay) , Uromys caudimaculatus (Eutheria: Muridae ).

Site in host. Lung parenchyma, hepatic blood vessels and lymphatics.

Distribution and hosts. Monanema australis is known from the original description from the lung parenchyma of the fawn-footed melomys and from hepatic blood vessels and lymphatics of the giant white-tailed rat on the Atherton Tablelands, north Queensland. It appears also to be known from the note and illustration by Mackerras (1962) of unidentified, sheathed microfilariae from the blood of Melomys cervinipes , M. burtoni (as M. lutillus litoralis (Thomas, 1913)) and U. caudimaculatus in the Inisfail region of north Queensland.

Remarks. This is the only species of Monanema described from Australian hosts, the other four species of the genus occurring in sciurids in North America and murids in the Ethiopian region. Ixodid ticks act as intermediate hosts and vectors of the three species for which life cycles are known ( Ko 1972; Bianco & Muller 1977, Bianco et al. 1983, Petit et al. 1988), with microfilariae occurring in the small lymphatic vessels of the skin.

Spratt (2008) also noted a much larger, sheathed microfilaria from the blood of Mesembriomys gouldii (Gray) from Mareeba airport on the Atherton Tablelands, possibly representing an undescribed species of Monanema in this murid host.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Breinlia (Breinlia) beveridgei sp. nov. 1, Cephalic end, lateral view. 2, Oesophago-intestinal junction, lateral view. 3, Anterior extremity, male, lateral view. 4, Right spicule and gubernaculum, lateroventral view. 5, Posterior end male, lateral view. 6, Left spicule, lateral view. Scale bars: Fig. 1 = 20 µm, Figs. 2–5 = 50 µm, Fig. 6 = 100 µm.

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.