Home|Journals|Articles by Year|Audio Abstracts
 

Original Research

Egypt. J. Exp. Biol. (Zoo.). 2009; 5(0): 167-173


ORIBATID MITES AS INTERMEDIATE HOSTS OF ANOPLOCEPHALID TAPEWORMS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION DYNAMICS IN A DESERT SOIL ECOSYSTEM

Mostafa H. ElMehlawy.




Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate the effect of anoplocephalid tapeworms mite infection on their distribution ecology and population structures. The data obtained revealed that seven species of oribatid mites collected from that chosen soil act as intermediate hosts of tapeworms of the Anoplocephalidae, as they were found to be infected by tapeworm cysticercoid. The most cited infected mite families were Oribatulidae with 5 species namely; Scheloribates laevigatus, S. zaheri, S. confundatus, Zygoribatula undulata and Z. niliaca. However, each of Galuminid and Haplozetid families is represented by only one infected species. These species are Galumna flabellifera and Xylobates lophotricus, respectively. From the parasitological point of view, the present study clarified the temporal variability of the intensity of infection among the infected mites, the prevalence of infection as well as the vertical distribution tendency of infected mites in natural habitats. According to mean intensity and prevalence of infection, the infected oribatid mites could be divided into four groups; 1- Low prevalence and heavily infected group. 2- High prevalence and heavily infected group. 3- High prevalence and moderately infected group. 4-High prevalence and lightly infected group and were found to be species dependent. The vertical distribution tendency of the infected mites is strongly correlated to the prevalence of infection.

Key words: Oribatid mites, Seasonal and Vertical distribution, Anoplocephalidae, Desert ecosystem, Egypt






Full-text options


Share this Article


Online Article Submission
• ejmanager.com




ejPort - eJManager.com
Refer & Earn
JournalList
About BiblioMed
License Information
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

The articles in Bibliomed are open access articles licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.