FILARIAE FORM A WILD GORILLA IN GABON WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF MANSONELLA

A search for filariae was performed on a wild male Gorilla g. gorilla from the lope Reserve in Gabon, which had died as a result of injuries inflicted by another male gorilla. A female worm of Loa Loa and femal e worms of two species of Mansonella were recovered from the deep tiss ues of a wounded thigh. In order to analyze these Mansonella, specimen s of M. (E.) persians, M. (E.) vanhoofi and M. (E.) streptocerca from the Collections of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris h ave been studied and new important discriminative characters character ised, such as the body-swellings in M. (E.) perstans, due to the prese nce of coelomocytes as in South-american M. (Tetrapetalonema) spp. One of the Mansonella from this gorilla was not identified, but the body- swellings and the microfilarial morphology suggested a possible simila rity with M. (Esslingeria) perstans. The other species is new; M. (E.) lopeensis n. sp. is distinguished by its large size, lack of body-swe llings, structure of the tegumental sheath, complex vagina, and a tail with a subterminal constriction, a terminal bend and large lappets. H istological sections of organs of this gorilla also showed a microfila ria of M. (E) leopoldi in the blood vessels of the liver, and a mole o f Mansonella sp., interestingly situated in an afferent lymphatic vess el of on axillary lymph node. The diversity of the Mansonella (Essling eria) species in Africa, compared io the small number of hosts, may ha ve resulted from successive speciations in the hosts, or might be a su rvival of a parasite fauna diversified at the lime of the radiation of the African apes (first half of Miocene).