Helminth communities of green frogs Rana clamitans Latreille, from southwestern Michigan

A total of 239 green frogs Rana clamitans, collected between June 3 and Aug ust 27, 1998 from 6 locations in southwestern Michigan, was examined for he lminths. Of the 26 helminth taxa found, the larval cestode Mesocestoides sp . had the highest mean intensity, followed by the larval trematode Fibricol a sp. Of the helminths that mature in frogs, Haematoloechus varioplexus had the highest prevalence and Gorgodera amplicava had the highest mean intens ity. Frogs from 118th Pond had the highest species richness (20), mean helm inth species richness (5.2), and mean helminth abundance (153.7), Frogs fro m Constantine East had the highest mean helminth species diversity (0.8778) and evenness (0.6033), followed by frogs from 118th Pond. In all compariso ns of mean helminth community species richness, abundance, diversity, and e venness, adult frogs had significantly higher or higher values than did juv eniles at each location. Jaccard's coefficients of similarity for the helmi nth communities for location pairs ranged from 0.545 to 0.823. Nine and 2 c ore helminth taxa occurred at the local and regional levels, respectively. The differences in several helminth community measures in green frogs among locations stress the importance of local ecological conditions on helminth community structure.