A Contribution to the Nematode Fauna of Two Agamid Lizards from Afghanistan

Helminthologia. 2021 Feb 10;58(1):115-118. doi: 10.2478/helm-2021-0006. eCollection 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Information on the recent herpetological and related parasitological collections are very rarely available for Afghanistan. We examined two species of the family Agamidae, Laudakia nuristanica and Paralaudakia caucasia for the presence of the intestinal helminth fauna. Overall, we examined 13 specimens of these lizards and found three species of helminths (Abbreviata achari, Thelandros masaae, T. taylori) in a single specimen of L. nuristanica and four species (A. achari, T. baylisi, T. taylori, P. kasauli) in three specimens of P. caucasia. Here in, we present the first report on the helminth fauna from L. nuristanica, record a new helminth host for P. caucasia and three new country records for the helminth fauna of Afghanistan.

Keywords: Agamidae; Central Asia; Palearctic; endoparasites; first records; rare collection.