MORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOMETRICS OF 3 OXYURIDS PARASITIC IN PRIMATES WITHA DESCRIPTION OF LEMURICOLA-MICROCEBI N-SP

Morphology and morphometrics of three oxyurids parasitic in primates w ith a description of Lemuricola microcebi n. sp. international Journal for Parasitology 25: 1065-1075. Classical and morphometric analyses w ere conducted on several samples of oxyurid nematodes parasitic in str epsirrhine primates: Cheirogaleus major, Galago senegalensis, and Micr ocebus murinus. A diagnosis of Lemuricola contagiosus Chabaud & Fetter , 1959 from C. major is given using syntypes, from which a lectotype i s selected. The rest of the specimens were compared to L. contagiosus. From measurements taken from each sex, an initial Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on log-transformed data and a second PCA was performed on Log-shape ratios after elimination of the isometric differences. The parasites collected from M. marinas, which can be dif ferentiated from the closely related L. contagiosus by both standard m orphological characters and morphometric variables, are described as L emuricola microcebi n. sp. The parasites collected from Galago are mor phologically very similar to L. microcebi n. sp. The most probable exp lanation for this resemblance is considered to be a transfer from Micr ocebus to Galago but, due to the small numbers of individuals in our s amples, it is impossible to eliminate the possibility that the parasit es of Galago belong to an undescribed species. Until more material or information can be obtained, it is proposed to refer to the parasites from Galago as Lemuricola sp.