Dracunculus spp

Cleveland, Christopher A., Garrett, Kayla B., Cozad, Rebecca A., Williams, Brianna M., Murray, Maureen H. & Yabsley, Michael J., 2018, The wild world of Guinea Worms: A review of the genus Dracunculus in wildlife, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 7 (3), pp. 289-300 : 294-295

2.1.5. Dracunculus spp . from Africa

There are two described Dracunclus species from Africa ( Table 1). Dracunculus doi ( Chabaud, 1960) was originally described using a male specimen from the Madagascar ground boa ( Acrantophis madagascariensis ) ( Chabaud, 1960). Females of this parasite were subsequently detected in a captive Madagascar tree boa ( Sanzinia madagascariensis ) in a Paris Zoo (Vaucher and Bain, 1973). Larvae from the tree boa were infective to Cyclops strenuus and developed to L 3 in 13 days at 22–25 ̊C. These infective larvae were given to a ball python (Python regius), which developed an infection with two male nematodes (Vaucher and Bain, 1973; Moravec, 2006).

Dracunculus dahomensis (Neumann, 1895) Moorthy, 1937 was originally described from the lymphoid tissues of a captive African rock python (Python sebae) from Benin (then Dahomey) (Neumann, 1895). Males of this species were redescribed by Moorthy (1937). No other life history traits are known for this parasite ( Moravec, 2006).