Heligmonina cricetomyos Baylis, 1928

Durette-Desset, Marie-Claude & Digiani, Maria Celina, 2010, Taxonomic revision of the type specimens of Ethiopian Nippostrongylinae (Nematoda) deposited at the Natural History Museum of London, Zootaxa 2494, pp. 1-28 : 7-9

Heligmonina cricetomyos Baylis, 1928

( Table 4)

The type-material was made up of three males (slides 131, 132, 133) parasites from the small intestine of one Cricetomys emini n° 14, from Adu. Baylis (1928) identified this species in four other Cricetomys emini , three from Adu (n° 197, n° 359, n° 363) and the fourth from Ife (n° 439) and in one Cricetomys gambianus ( Cricetomys buchanani Thomas & Hinton on the label) (n° 481) from Kano, all from the small intestine. Baylis indicated that the synlophe was made up of a left ala of 80-150 µm (without specifying the sex) and 8– 10 inconspicuous ridges. The metrical data provided by Baylis concern both sexes.

Figures 3, 4 , slide 148, Figure 5 , slide 144, Figures 7, 9 , slide 147. Figure 8 , slide 142 from Oenomys hypoxanthus n° 418. Figure 6 , voucher material from Oenomys hypoxanthus MNHN 755M. Abbreviations: v: ventral side, r: right lateral side.

For the males, the description was probably based only on the syntypes, since we obtained the same measurements from this material, even though unfortunately, on these slides, the spicules were not observable anymore.

With regard to the males from the voucher material, we identified as H. cricetomyos the male (slide 140) parasitic in C. emini n° 359 and the male (slide 141) parasitic in C. gambianus n° 481. In both cases, the spicule length (370, 370) and the ratio SpL/BL (7.2, 7.5%) correspond to the data provided by Baylis (spicule length 400–450, ratio SpL/BL 7.5–9%).

Regarding the females Baylis (1928) wrote «Vulva about 0.2 mm from posterior end; cuticle sometimes much inflated in front of vulva». The vulva was situated at about this level in the voucher females from C. emini n° 197 and n° 359. Therefore this is the material which must be identified as Heligmonina cricetomyos . In the voucher females from C. emini n° 363, it was not possible to observe the position of the vulva but they are differentiated from the females of H. cricetomyos by the position of the ventral prevulvar ala which is 110, 120 µm from the posterior end versus 280 µm in H. cricetomyos . In addition the shape of the prevulvar ala was different in both species. Therefore these specimens may belong to another species of Heligmonina . It was not possible to identify the male and the three females (slide 135) parasitic in C. emini n° 439 from Ife.

Host - Locality Slide Specimens Baylis’ identification Present identification Oenomys hypoxanthus nº 142 Male 1 Hi. oenomyos Neoheligmonella sp.1 N° 418 - Ife Male 2 Hi. oenomyos Neoheligmonella sp.1

Female 1 Hi. oenomyos Neoheligmonella sp.1 Type host for Heligmonina nº 143 Female 1 Hi. oenomyos Neoheligmonella sp.1 oenomyos nº 144 Male 1* Hi. oenomyos Hi. oenomyos

nº 147 Female 1 Hi. oenomyos Neoheligmonella sp.1

Female 2** Hi. oenomyos Hi. oenomyos

nº 148 Female 1** Hi. oenomyos Hi. oenomyos

Female 2** Hi. oenomyos Hi. oenomyos

** the female chosen as paralectotype of Heligmonina oenomyos (female 2 on slide nº 147) is 3.7 mm long and lacks vulvar alae.

Host - Locality Slide Specimens Baylis’ identification Present identification

Cricetomys emini nº 131 Male 1* Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

N° 14 - Adu nº 132 Male 1** Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

Type host for Heligmonina nº 133 Male 1** Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

cricetomyos

Cricetomys emini n° 136 Female 1 Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

N° 197 - Adu Female 2 Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

n° 74 Male 1 Hi. cricetomyos Ne. moennigi n° 75 Male 1 Hi. cricetomyos Ne. moennigi

Cricetomys emini nº 137 Female 1 Hi. cricetomyos unidentifiable

N° 359 - Adu nº 138 Male 1 Hi. cricetomyos unidentifiable

n° 139 Female 1 Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos n° 140 Male 1 Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

Cricetomys emini n° 134 Female 1 Hi. cricetomyos Heligmonina sp.1

N° 363 - Adu Female 2 Hi. cricetomyos Heligmonina sp.1

Cricetomys emini nº 135 Male 1 unidentifiable

N° 439 - Ife Female 1 unidentifiable Female 2 unidentifiable Female 3 unidentifiable

Cricetomys gambianus (syn n° 141 Male 1 Hi. cricetomyos Hi. cricetomyos

C. buchanani )

N° 481 - Kano

Figures

FIGURES 3 – 9. Figures 3 – 6. Heligmonina oenomyos Baylis, 1928. 3, 4, paralectotype female. 3, anterior extremity, right lateral view. 4, posterior extremity, right lateral view. 5, lectotype male, posterior extremity, ventral view. 6, female, transverse section at mid-body. Figures 7 – 9. Neoheligmonella sp. 2. 7, female, posterior extremity, dorsal view. 8, male, posterior extremity, left lateral view. 9, female, anterior extremity, right lateral view.