The purpose of this study was to evaluate the component community of the parasitic metazoans of the

Afro-American house gecko Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) from the jungle of Peru.

Ninety-one specimens of H. mabouia from seven localities of San Martín and Huánuco were collected

from April to June 2015. The parasites were collected and processed according to standard protocols.

Eighty-five percent of the geckos were infected with at least one parasite species and a total of 1,120

parasite specimens were collected with a prevalence of 90%. The parasitic fauna of H. mabouia was

composed of 11 species, as follow: six species of nematodes - Oswaldocruzia aff. brasiliensis Lent et

Freitas, 1935, Spauligodon sp. Skrjabin, Schikhobalova & Lagodovskaja, 1960, Parapharyngodon sp.

Chatterji, 1933, Physaloptera sp. Rudolphi, 1819, Acuariidae gen. sp. Railliet, Henry & Sisoff, 1912, and

one species not identified of nematode; one cestode species - Oochoristica vanzolinii Rego & Rodrigues,

A positive association was observed between the prevalence of infection of R. hebitihamata and

Parapharyngodon sp. with the total length (TL) of the gecko. There was also a relationship between TL of

H. mabouia and MA and mean intensity of Spauligodon sp. The cestode O. vanzolinii and the pentastomid

R. hebitihamata are first geographical record for Peru. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and

the relationship between community composition and explanatory variables (host length, sex, and

locality) were examined by permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) applied to species

abundances which showed high homogeneity among metazoan parasite communities of H. mabouia.

La finalidad de este estudio fue evaluar el componente comunitario de los metazoos parásitos del gecko-

Skrjabin, Schikhobalova & Lagodovskaja, 1960, Parapharyngodon sp. Chatterji, 1933, Physaloptera sp.

Rudolphi, 1819, Acuariidae gen. sp. Railliet, Henry & Sisoff, 1912 y una especie no identificada de

nemátoda; una especie de cestodo Oochoristica vanzolinii Rego & Rodrigues, 1965, dos especies de

trematodos Paradistomum sp.1 Kossack, 1910, Paradistomum sp.2 Kossack, 1910; una especies de

pentastómido Raillietiella hebitihamata Self & Kuntz, 1960; y una especie de ácaro Geckobia hemidactyli

Lawrence, 1936. Los tres parásitos con la más alta prevalencia (P) y abundancia media (AM) fueron G.

hemidactyli (P = 45.05 %, AM = 4.16), Spauligodon sp. (P = 37.36 %, AM = 2.64) y R. hebitihamata (P=

32.97 %, AM = 2.3). Las infecciones parasitarias individuales y múltiples con al menos una, dos, tres,

cuatro y cinco especies de parásitos fueron observadas en 25, 35, 15, 6 y 1 hospederos, respectivamente.

Se observó asociación positiva entre la prevalencia de infección de R. hebitihamata y Parapharyngodon

entre los parásitos metazoos de las comunidades de H. mabouia.

The research focused on the study of parasite

communities in exotic reptiles is scarce both in

America and even more in Peru (Goldberg et al.,

1995; Hanley et al., 1995; Goldberg & Bursey,

contributions to this field (Travassos, 1920;

Travassos, 1931; Ávila & Silva, 2010).

of reptiles start with the work of Baylis (1926) who

described for the first time the nematode

Thubunaea parkeri Baylis 1926 parasitizing the

lizards Microlophus occipitalis (Peters, 1871) and

Dicrodon heterolepis (Baylis, 1926).

Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818)

(Squamata: Gekkonidae) is a species of exotic

gecko of African origin that is well established and

widely distributed in South America (Ávila-Pires,

1995). Hemidactylus mabouia is very common in

keys of Gibson et al. (2008) for trematodes, Khalil

et al. (1994) for cestodes, Anderson (2000) for

nematodes, and Krantz (1978) for the mites. The

specimens of the parasite species were deposited in

the Helminthological Collection of the Institute of

Biosciences (CHIBB) of São Paulo State

University (UNESP), municipality of Botucatu

under registration numbers CHIBB 7813-7818.

19). The collection of the parasitic fauna is

indicated by the SERFOR (National Forestry and

Wildlife Service) of Peru that establishes the

guidelines for the scientific investigation of flora

and/or wild fauna (Resolution of Executive

Direction Nº060-2016 SERFOR-DE). For the field

collection of the geckos, the impact on the

abundance of species was minimized so that it is

minimal (Costello et al., 2016).

examined, of which 20.9% (n = 19) were females

in which the averages of the TL of the male and

female geckos do not have significant differences

(F = 0.031, p = 0.86, t = 4, 02, n = 91).

nematode of the family Acuariidae Railliet, Henry

& Sisoff, 1912, and a nematode cyst in Liver; the

of the 91 metazoan parasites communities from H.

mabouia. The NMDS ordination suggests a high

degree of homogeneity across communities. The

Figure 1. Box plot diagram for the total length (in cm) of the total of Geckos, males, and females of Hemidactylus mabouia

collected in the region of San Martin and Huanuco, Peru.

Figure 2. Dendrogram with the Jaccard similarity index (left) and the Morisita-Horn quantitative index (right) for paired data of

association between Hemidactylus mabouia parasites of San Martin and Huánuco, Peru. GH=Geckobia hemidactyli,

Figure 5. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plots results of all lengths (1, 6.0 cm -8.0 cm. 2, 8.1 cm – 10.0 cm. 3, 10.1

cm -12.0 cm 4, 12.1-14.0cm 5, >14cm) in terms of their parasitic abundance. Bray Curtis similarity. 2D Stress = 0.58. 1 =•. 2 = . 3

= . 4 =∆. 5= .

Figure 6. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) plots results of sex (1, males. 2, females) in terms of their parasitic

abundance. Bray Curtis similarity. 2D Stress = 0. 58. 1= ■. 2= .