A new genus and three new species of tapeworms (Cestoda: Onchoproteocephalidea) in Erythrolamprus snakes (Colubridae: Dipsadinae) in South America.

Authors

Alain de Chambrier, Tomas Scholz

Published in

Folia parasitologica. Volume 73. Aug 26, 2026. Epub Aug 26, 2026.

Abstract

The species diversity of reptile parasites in the New World, including South America, remains poorly understood, and this also applies to tapeworms (Cestoda: Onchoproteocephalidea). Only 17 species of the non-monophyletic genus Ophiotaenia La Rue, 1911 have been recorded in reptiles in the Neotropical Region. In this paper, three new species are described from dipsadine snakes of the genus Erythrolamprus Boie (Colubridae) in Brazil and Paraguay, and a new genus, Penetrocestus, is proposed to accommodate these tapeworms that penetrate the intestinal wall of their hosts. The new genus differs from other proteocephalids parasitising snakes by the presence of a large apical glandular organ, which is larger than the suckers, and a large vaginal sphincter lined with a thick layer of chromophilic cells. Penetrocestus gen. n. is also characterised by a long and wide region ('metascolex') posterior to the scolex and a well-developed inner longitudinal musculature, which is weakly developed in most proteocephalids parasitising Neotropical snakes. Ophiotaenia joanae (de Chambrier et Paulino, 1997) from Xenodon neuwiedii Günther (Colubridae) in Brazil is transferred to Penetrocestus as its type species and as a new combination. Penetrocestus gorgonae sp. n. from Erythrolamprus aesculapii (Linnaeus) in Brazil, Penetrocestus jaegeri sp. n. from Erythrolamprus jaegeri (Günther) in Paraguay, and Penetrocestus tristani sp. n. from Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus (Wied-Neuwied) in Paraguay differ from Penetrocestus joanae (de Chambrier et Paulino, 1997) comb. n. and from each other by the position of the metascolex, width of the scolex, morphology of the terminal (distal) portion of the vagina, and the number of testes, as summarised in the key to their identification. The phylogenetic relationships of the new species are unknown, as they were collected more than 35 years ago and no tissues were fixed in ethanol for genetic characterisation, but the new data support the assumption of strict host specificity of reptilian tapeworms in the Neotropical Region.

PMID:
42671289
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Sep 2026.

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