Folia Parasitologica 70:009 (2023) | DOI: 10.14411/fp.2023.009

A global survey of tapeworms (Cestoda: Proteocephalidae) of 'true' frogs (Amphibia: Ranidae), including a tabulated list of all proteocephalids parasitising amphibians

Tomáš Scholz ORCID...^{1, *}, Alain de Chambrier ORCID...², Olena Kudlai ORCID...³, Vasyl V. Tkach ORCID...⁴, Chris T. McAllister ORCID...⁵

¹ Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, České Budějovice, Czech Republic;

² Department of Invertebrates, Natural History Museum, Geneva, Switzerland;

³ Institute of Ecology, Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania;

⁴ University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.A;

⁵ Division of Science and Mathematics, Eastern Oklahoma State College, Idabel, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

Proteocephalid tapeworms of frogs of the family Ranidae ('true' frogs) are reviewed with emphasis on their species diversity, host specificity and geographical distribution. New molecular data (nuclear lsrDNA and mitochondrial COI sequences) are presented for tapeworms of four species of ranid frogs in North America, including the poorly known Ophiotaenia saphena Osler, 1931 of Rana clamitans Latreille and R. catesbeiana (Shaw), which is redescribed using new material from Arkansas, USA. Tapeworms of R. sphenocephala (Cope) and R. pipiens Schreber, the latter previously identified as O. saphena, represent another, putative new species, but are not formally described due to insufficient available material. Proteocephalus papuensis Bursey, Goldberg et Kraus, 2008 from Sylvirana supragrisea (Menzies) is transferred to Ophiotaenia La Rue, 1911 as a new combination. After a critical review of the literature, only nine nominal species of Ophiotaenia are recognised as valid, which is in contrast to the large number of ranid frogs (> 440 spp.). The reasons for this striking disparity are briefly discussed, and a key based on morphology is presented for the identification of all species of Ophiotaenia from the Ranidae. Molecular data are available for only two taxa from North America that form a monophyletic group. The relationships among tapeworms of ranid frogs occurring in other zoogeographical regions are not yet known. The taxonomic status of Batrachotaenia Rudin, 1917, which was erected to accommodate proteocephalids from amphibians, is also discussed. To facilitate future studies, a tabulated summary of all 32 species of proteocephalids belonging to three genera reported from amphibians (frogs and salamanders) is presented, with information on their hosts, distribution, and taxonomically important characters, including key measurements.

Keywords: Ophiotaenia, Onchoproteocephalidea, global diversity, taxonomy, morphology, redescription, molecular data, Anura, Amphibia, Nearctic region

Received: August 17, 2022; Revised: January 5, 2023; Accepted: January 18, 2023; Published online: April 12, 2023  Show citation