Ochoterenella digiticauda Caballero, 1944

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 : 14

Ochoterenella digiticauda Caballero, 1944

Hosts (prevalence; range): R. diptycha (1/21; 4).

Site of infection: body cavity.

Stage: adult.

Type host and type locality: R. marina (= B. marinus ), Chiapas, Huixtla, Mexico.

Comments: Filarids associated with anurans are from Onchocercidae and are classified in two subfamilies: Icosiellinae and Waltonellinae ( Anderson et al. 2009; Souza Lima et al. 2012). The genus Ochoterenella belongs to Waltonellinae and is characterized by a long tail, lacking cephalic spines, lateral cuticularized parastomal structures, annular bands of longitudinally oriented saliences (bosses), lack of lateral and caudal alae, circular mouth lacking lips, viviparous females, vulva in the esophagus region and males with caudal papillae and unequal spicules ( Lent et al. 1946; Esslinger 1986; Souza Lima et al. 2012). There are 16 species of Ochoterenella recorded for amphibians from Neotropical Realm ( Souza Lima et al. 2012; Campi„o et al. 2014). Our specimens presented the main characters of Ochoterenella digiticauda such as the arrangement and size of the cuticular bosses, distinct median ventral preanal cuticularized plaque located just anterior to caudal papillae, structural details of the spicules such as tip closed slightly bulbous of the right and proximal portion weakly cuticularized in the left (see Lent et al. 1946; Esslinger 1986). Several hosts have been recorded for O. digiticauda such as bufonids, leptodactylids, and hylids. This is the second record of O. digiticauda for R. diptycha , the first was in Paraguay ( Lent et al. 1946).