Roberto Júnio Pedroso Dias
Acta Protozoologica, Volume 57, Issue 1, 2018, pp. 61-67
https://doi.org/10.4467/16890027AP.18.006.8400In our study, we aimed to identify and quantify the intestinal ciliates in a Brazilian capybara and to compare the obtained data with previous studies on the capybara ciliate community in other geographic locations within the American continent. We identified 20 species belonging to four families and ten genera. This is the first study on intestinal ciliates in Brazilian capybara since the last reports for the country in the 1960s. Among the identified species, Anacharon gracilis, A. lepturus, Cycloposthium bursa, Monoposthium cynodontum, Ogimotopsis pumila, Paracunhamunizia calocoma, Protohallia nana and Uropogon urai were recorded for the first time in Brazil, and the giant ciliate Muniziella cunhai was observed for the second time in a symbiotic association with capybaras in the country. The present study highlighted the importance of knowing the gastrointestinal ciliate community associated with wild hosts in order to better understand their geographic distribution and host specificity.
Roberto Júnio Pedroso Dias
Acta Protozoologica, Volume 59, Issue 2, 2020, pp. 61-65
https://doi.org/10.4467/16890027AP.20.005.12673The present study redescribes the species Polyplastron alaskum based on morphological characterization and provides, for the first time, data on its infraciliary bands pattern. Polyplastron alaskum was described in Alaskan dall montain sheep (Ovis dalli), and registered again only in the present study, 45 years later, inhabiting the rumen contents of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in northeastern Brazil. All the taxonomic characters observed in the original description was observed in the present study. The infraciliary pattern in Polyplastron alaskum is slightly different of Diplodinium-type, observed in some ophryoscolecids belonging to the subfamily Diplodiniinae.