Dracunculus insignis

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 : 295

4.1. Dracunculus insignis

Dracunculus insignis was initially described as Filaria insignis by Leidy in 1858 from a female nematode in the foot of a raccoon ( Procyon lotor ) from Pennsylvania, USA ( Chandler, 1942a). Morphologically similar parasites detected in raccoons from Texas were noted to be similar to Dracunculus fuelleborni from a big-eared opossum ( Didelphis aurita ) in South America, based on the size and cephalic structures of the female nematodes. At that time, the morphologic characteristics of males, which are needed for definitive identification, were not available

(Travassos, 1934; Chandler, 1942b). A male specimen of D. insignis was first detected in a raccoon in Dorchester County, Maryland ( Chitwood, 1950) and was noted to be morphologically like D. medinensis but was differentiated based on the number and arrangement of genital papillae and length of gubernaculum ( Chandler, 1942a; Chitwood, 1950). Although this review focuses on wildlife hosts, D. insignis also infects domestic dogs and domestic cats in the United States and Canada. A recent review was published (Williams et al., 2018).