New host records of Brazilian pentastomid species

Abstract

Pentastomida is a taxon of parasitic organisms infecting generally the respiratory system of vertebrates, mainly reptiles. Although this taxon is very important for understanding the phylogeny of the Metazoa, it has received little attention. In Brazil, there are few collections that include species of pentastomids, that is, only the Helminthological Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (CHIOC), the Invertebrate Collection of the Zoology Laboratory of the Regional University of Cariri (LAZ-URCA) and the Helminthological Collection of the Botucatu Institute of Biosciences (CHIBB). The present study describes the species of pentastomids deposited in CHIBB. When found, the pentastomids were mounted on slides in Hoyer's medium and identified. Four species of pentastomids were recognised and three others were identified at the genus level, while four new hosts for the species of pentastomids were recorded.