METACOMMUNITY STRUCTURE OF HELMINTHS OF NECROMYS LASIURUS (RODENTIA: SIGMODONTINAE) IN DIFFERENT LAND USE AREAS IN THE BRAZILIAN CERRADO

Abstract

The ecology of host-parasite interactions can be studied in the infracommunity and component community scales, which may show different patterns in species distributions, interacting and affecting each other on a regional scale. Few studies have been carried out concerning the structure and variation of the helminth communities of wild rodents in Brazil. The rodent Necromys lasiurus is typical from the mammalian fauna of the Cerrado biome; however, the environmental disturbances are making this species occur in rural areas and in other biomes where it may act as host/reservoir of many diseases. This study aimed to describe the composition and structure of the helminth metacommunity in the rodent N. lasiurus in the Brazilian Cerrado, Uberlândia, State of Minas Gerais, using the analysis of metacommunity structure. Rodents were sampled in 3 habitat types: borders of soybean and corn plantations, pasturelands, and preserved areas of Cerrado borders. Adult helminths of 8 species were found in the gastrointestinal tract: Protospirura numidica criceticola, Physaloptera sp., Pterygodermatites (Paucipectines) zygodontomis (Spirurida), Stilestrongylus freitasi (Rhabditida), Trichuris navonae (Trichurida) and Syphacia (Syphacia) alata (Oxiurida) of the Phylum Nematoda; Rodentolepis akodontis (Cyclophyllidea) of the Phylum Platyhelminthes; and Moniliformis sp. (Moniliformida) of the Phylum Acanthocephala. Season and the kind of land use favored some helminths species in this rodent, especially in the plantation area, although diversity was not largely influenced by the land use. Plantation areas could provide an increase in the host abundance and the occurrence of other rodent species, favoring a higher rate of parasite exchange among different hosts. A checkerboard structure of metacommunity was found on the infracommunity scale, which suggests the existence of interspecific competition. A quasi-nested structure of metacommunity was observed on the component community scale showing that most species were influenced by the same environmental gradient and that the species-poor communities were subsets of species-rich communities. Syphacia alata, P. zygodontomis, S. freitasi, and R. akodontis were dominant species in all habitats and represented the core-species in the metacommunity.