Kapsulotaenia pythonis ( Wahid, 1968 ) de Chambrier, Brabec, Tran & Scholz, 2019

Chambrier, Alain De, Brabec, Jan & Scholz, Tomáš, 2020, Molecular data reveal unexpected species diversity of tapeworms of Australasian reptiles: revision of Kapsulotaenia (Cestoda: Proteocephalidae), Zootaxa 4869 (4), pp. 529-561 : 536-538

4. Kapsulotaenia pythonis ( Wahid, 1968) de Chambrier, Brabec, Tran & Scholz, 2019

( Figs. 3B, E, F , 10A )

Syn. Acanthotaenia pythonis Wahid, 1968

Type and only known host. Green python, Morelia viridis (Schlegel, 1872) ( Squamata : Pythonidae ).

Site of infection. Intestine.

Type locality. London Zoological Garden.

Additional localities. Papua-New Guinea (new geographical record).

Type material. Syntypes—3 slides with fragments of at least 2 specimens (2 scoleces) and 7 slides with cross sections of the strobila and frontal sections of the scolex (MHNG-PLAT-99946; NHMUK 1998.10.12.18–22) .

Material studied. Syntypes; 3 slides with 1 specimen without scolex and frontal sections of gravid proglottids from M. viridis, Papua-New Guinea, provided by A. A. Rego (MHNG-PLAT-34804) .

Morphological description (see Table 2 for new measurements). Strobila relatively long (135–150 mm). Mature proglottids wider than long; gravid proglottids longer than wide. Tegument thick, covered with minute spinitriches throughout strobila. Scolex wider than neck. Apical organ surrounded by several rows of circular muscle fibres. Retractor muscles connecting rostellum with neck region present. Genital primordia appear about 0.9 mm posterior to scolex. Testes oblong, in one or two layers and two fields converging anteriorly. Vas deferens convoluted, in median posterior field. Cirrus-sac pear-shaped; cirrus short, armed with small spines (spinitriches). Ovary bilobed. Terminal part of vagina near genital pore surrounded by small vaginal sphincter, opening posterior or anterior to cirrus-sac. Genital pore irregularly alternating, postequatorial. Vitelline follicles in two lateral bands occupying most of proglottid length, interrupted at level of cirrus-sac on ventral side. Uterus reaching almost anterior margin of proglottid, posteriorly not overpassing ovarian isthmus. Eggs in clusters.

Remarks. This species was described by Wahid (1968) as Acanthotaenia pythonis from the green python, Morelia viridis , kept in the Zoological Garden of London. The original description was not very detailed and illustrations were rather schematic. Based on the presence of eggs in clusters, de Chambrier et al. (2019) transferred the species to Kapsulotaenia .

A study of type specimens and new material of K. pythonis from the type host from Papua-New Guinea (new geographical record and probably the original distribution area of this species) has revealed, among others, the presence of concentric circles of muscle fibres in the apex of the scolex ( Fig. 3B ), a thick-walled cirrus-sac, an armed cirrus ( Fig. 3F ), and eggs grouped in oval clusters of 19– 22 eggs each ( Fig. 10A ). The vagina opens anterior (68%— Fig. 3E ) or posterior (32%— Fig. 3F ) to the cirrus-sac (n = 98) .

The presence of concentric circles of muscle fibres in the apex of the scolex and a thick-walled cirrus-sac are features lacking in other members of Kapsulotaenia . Awaiting collection of new material of this species for DNA studies, this species provisionally remains in Kapsulotaenia .

Wolf et al. (2014) and Hallinger et al. (2020) observed the presence of Kapsulotaenia spp. in faeces of the green python, M. viridis . Figures 3b 1 , 2 ( Wolf et al. 2014) and Fig. 1a ( Hallinger et al. 2020) show a cluster of eggs in M. viridis that seems to belong to K. pythonis . Hallinger et al. (2020) also reported eggs, presumably belonging to Kapsulotaenia tapeworms, from Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758 and Bitis schneideri (Boettger, 1886) kept in German zoological gardens. However, these records need verification as they most probably represented accidental infections (except for K. pythonis in M. viridis , species of Kapsulotaenia are specific parasites of monitor lizards). Another proteocephalid tapeworm, Crepidobothrium gerrardii (Baird, 1860) , is a common parasite of B. constrictor , whereas no Kapsulotaenia tapeworms have been found in this host ( Rego 1967; de Chambrier 1989a, b; Gomez-Puerta 2011).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic relationships of tapeworms of the subfamily Acanthotaeniinae (Cestoda: Proteocephalidae) based on a maximum likelihood analysis of concatenated (lsrDNA +cox1) data. Nodal values depict standard bootstrap supports (1,000 resamples) over 50, dashed lines are used for nodes with bootstrap values below 50. Branch length scale bar indicates number of substitutions per site. GenBank accession numbers can be found in Table 1.

FIGURE 2. Maximum likelihood single-gene phylogenies of Kapsulotaenia based on cox1 (above) and lsrDNA (below) data. Nodal values depict standard bootstrap supports (1,000 resamples) over 50, dashed lines are used for nodes with bootstrap values below 50. Branch length scale bar indicates number of substitutions per site. GenBank accession numbers can be found in Table 1.

FIGURE 3. Kapsulotaenia frezei from Varanus palawanensis, Philippines (holotype USNM 1368496) (A, D), Kapsulotaenia pythonis (Wahid, 1968) from Morelia viridis, Zoological garden (syntype NHMUK 1998.10.12.18–22) (B, E, F), and Kapsulotaenia saccifera (von Rátz, 1900) from Varanus sp., Papua-New Guinea (syntype MHNG-PLAT-36037) (C, G). A–C—scolex; D, G—gravid proglottids with banana-shaped capsules with eggs, ventrally; E—mature proglottid, dorsally; F—terminal genitalia, dorsally.

FIGURE 10. Egg capsules of species of Kapsulotaenia (eggs from unmounted proglottids drawn in distilled water). A—K. pythonis from Morelia viridis (syntype); B—Kapsulotaenia sp. 6 from Varanus varius (host AUS005); C—K. tidswelli from Varanus varius (host Aus135); D, F—K. varia from V. varius (hosts Aus016 and Aus137); E—K. beveridgei n. sp. from V. rosenbergi (host Aus028); G, H—K. cannoni n. sp. from V. gouldii (host Aus140).