Publication details
Unexpected visitor: mermithid nematode (Mermithidae, Nematoda) – surprised host: Bark Spider, Caerostris sumatrana (Araneae, Araneidae)
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | A new record of a parasitic nematode from the family Mermithidae (Nematoda) parasitising a female Bark Spider, Caerostris sumatrana Strand, 1915 (Araneae: Araneidae) from the Phethaburi province (Ban Lat district) in the southern part of Central Thailand is described. The host spider belongs to the orb-web guild, occurring in shrubs and trees of lowland dipterocarp forests. Specific identification was impossible because morphological identification of mermithids to genus and species mainly requires adult male samples (2 molts after emergence) (Poinar 1985, Allard and Robertson 2003) and only a subadult developmental stage was available. The nematode was extremely long in respect to its spider host, length was about 28 cm, brownish in colour, slightly transparent at tapered rounded ends. Probably, it belongs to the genus Aranimermis Poinar & Beton, 1986 on the basis of the characteristics: presence of six cephalic papillae in one plane, amphids located near to the lateral cephalic papillae, mouth opening terminal and postparasitic juvenile without tail appendages. This finding is among the first records of a mermithid parasite from an orb web spider species living in higher vegetation in Southeast Asia and the first record of nematode parasitism in the host species of genus Caerostris Thorell, 1868. |