Parasitic associations of a threatened Sri Lankan rainforest rodent, Mus mayor pococki (Rodentia: Muridae)

Authors

  • P.B. Ratnaweera
  • M.R. Wijesinghe
  • P.V. Udagama-Randeniya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2194.901-7

Abstract

Parasitic investigations of the subspecies Mus mayori pococki were carried out in four rainforests that included two man and biosphere reserves and two forest reserves of Sri Lanka from October 2006 to August 2007. Rodents were live-trapped using Shermans traps. Of the 117 individuals of M. m. pococki captured 73% were infested with four types of ectoparasites mites of the genus Echinolaelaps, a louse Polyplax serrata, a larval stage of hard tick Ixodes and pseudoscorpions of the genus Megachernes. Mites were the most abundant ectoparasite of this rodent host. Faecal examination revealed the presence of a nematode larva of the Order Strongylida and five types of parasitic ova; three nematode ova types i.e. strongyle, strongyloides, ascarid types, and cestode and mite ova. In comparison to the non-infested hosts, those infested did not show a significant difference in body weight and size. Both sexes had an equal probability of being exposed to ectoparasites. The present study on the parasitic investigations of M. m. pococki reports four new host-ectoparasite and six new endoparasitic records for the Sri Lankan rodent host.

Author Biographies

P.B. Ratnaweera

Pamoda B. Ratnaweera, as a Zoology major student carried out this study as an off shoot of her final year undergraduate research project at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka under the guidance of Drs. Wijesinghe and Udagama Randeniya. Pamoda has several research communications presented at national and international forums.

M.R. Wijesinghe

Dr. Mayuri R. Wijesinghe is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo. Her field of interest is conservation biology. Her research focuses on the ecology and behaviour of small mammals (including population dynamics, feeding, space utilization) and amphibians, two important components of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and endemism.

P.V. Udagama-Randeniya

Dr. Preethi V. Udagama-Randeniya is a Professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo. Although she is an Immuno-parasitologist, she has recorded parasites of Sri Lankan murids, bats, elephants, poultry, pigs, reptiles, amphibians, bovids and aquarium fishes. She is the recipient of several local research awards.

Downloads

Published

26-06-2010

Issue

Vol 2, No 6 (2010)

Section

Articles

License

Authors own the copyright to the articles published in JoTT.  This is indicated explicitly in each publication. The authors grant permission to the publisher Wildlife Information Liaison Development (WILD) Society to publish the article in the Journal of Threatened Taxa. The authors recognize WILD as the original publisher, and to sell hard copies of the Journal and article to any buyer. JoTT is registered under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which allows authors to retain copyright ownership.  Under this license the authors allow anyone to download, cite, use the data, modify, reprint, copy and distribute provided the authors and source of publication are credited through appropriate citations (e.g., Son et al. (2016). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the southeastern Truong Son Mountains, Quang Ngai Province, Vietnam. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(7): 8953–8969. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2785.8.7.8953-8969). Users of the data do not require specific permission from the authors or the publisher.