Rhabdias esculentarum Cipriani, Mattiucci, Paoletti et al., 2012

KUZMIN, YURIY, 2013, Review of Rhabdiasidae (Nematoda) from the Holarctic, Zootaxa 3639 (1), pp. 1-76 : 38-39

Rhabdias esculentarum Cipriani, Mattiucci, Paoletti et al., 2012

Hosts: Pelophylax lessonae , P. esculentus ( Amphibia: Anura : Ranidae ).

Distribution: Western Palaearctic ( Italy).

Description (after Cipriani et al. 2012). Body small, 6.82 (3.35–8.85) mm long, 350 (260–410) wide (maximum width at vulva region). Body cuticle partly inflated, especially in anterior and posterior parts of body. Buccal capsule wide, ‘cup-shaped’; each side with small posterior segment; total length 14 (12.5–17), total width 8 (6–12); buccal capsule length/width ratio 0.57. Oesophageal length 483 (423–560) (7.4 % of total body length), width 39 (30–45) at anterior end, 68 (45–82) at bulb region (posterior end). Nerve-ring near middle of oesophagus. Intestine slightly wider than oesophageal bulb at junction with oesophagus, filled with dark contents, becoming slender at about vulva region. Vulva ‘fountain-shaped’, post-equatorial; distance from apex to vulva 3.68 (1.90– 4.80) mm, i.e. 54.4 (51–59)% of body length. Tail simple and sharply pointed, length 256 (200–310) (4.0% of body length). Uterus amphidelphic, filled with numerous eggs; eggs in proximity of vulva contain well-formed, unsheathed larvae.

Remarks. Rhabdias esculentarum was described and is still known only in Western Europe ( Italy). For now, it is not clear, whether or not its distribution coincides with the distribution areas of its hosts ( Pelophylax spp. ) that reaches Central Asia in the east.

References: Cipriani et al. (2012).