Oswaldocruzia mazzai Travassos, 1935

Aguiar, Aline, Morais, Drausio Honorio, Firmino Silva, Lidiane A., Anjos, Luciano Alves Dos, Foster, Ottilie Carolina & Silva, Reinaldo José Da, 2021, Biodiversity of anuran endoparasites from a transitional area between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes in Brazil: new records and remarks, Zootaxa 4948 (1), pp. 1-41 : 16

Oswaldocruzia mazzai Travassos, 1935

Hosts (prevalence; range): R. diptycha (1/21; 116).

Site of infection: small intestine.

Stage: adult.

Type host and type locality: Rhinella sp. (= Bufo sp.), Argentina.

Comments: the main differences among the species of Oswaldocruzia can be observed in spicules morphology and rays of the male caudal bursa. There are five groups according to spicule morphology and biogeographic distribution (Orient-Ethiopian; Neo-Ethiopian; Holarctic; Neotropical-continental; Neotropical-Caribbean) ( Ben Slimane et al. 1996). The relative disposition and origin of rays 6 and 8 in caudal bursa are organized in Type I, Type II and Type III (see Ben Slimane et al. 1996). Oswaldocruzia mazzai presents characters such as vesicle cephalic in two regions (the anterior is wider than posterior), spicules of the Neotropical-continental group (idiomorphic spicules with the bifurcation of fork in the distal third of spicule), there are around ten branches in spicules blade, caudal bursa type II (the ray 8 is independent of ray 6 in origin but with an overlap in the middle of its extension), and absence of lateral flaps in anterior portion of body. Moreover, our specimens also presented excretory pore in a distal third of esophagus, spike in the caudal end of female, and vulva in the middle of body. Rhinella diptycha is a new host for O. mazzai .