Parafilaroides		Contents		Rev 02/21/2024
Filaroid Lungworms		Classification		Biology and Ecology
		Morphology and Anatomy		Life Cycle
Return to Parafilaroides Menu				Ecosystem Functions and Services
		Distribution		Management
Return to Filaroididae Menu		Feeding		References
		Go to Nemaplex Main Menu		Go to Dictionary of Terminology

Classification:

Chromadorea

  Rhabditia

    Rhabditida

      Metastrongyloidea

        Filaroididae

   Type species of the genus: Parafilaroides ??

Synonyms

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Morphology and Anatomy:

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Distribution:

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Feeding:

  Parasites of pulmonary systems of seals and other pinnipeds.

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Biology and Ecology:

Parafilaroides krascheninnikovi is a lungworm parasite of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) in the Chukchi and Bering seas and P. caspicus of Caspian seals (Pusa caspica) which is an endemic species of the Caspian Sea . Parafilaroides krascheninnikovi is also reported in ringed seals of the Okhotsk Sea, in spotted seals (Phoca largha) and bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) seals of the Bering and Okhotsk seas. It is also reported from Baikal seals (Pusa sibirica), the Lake Baikal endemic species. Caspian and Baikal seals are unique in that their habitat is landlocked, without connection to the ocean. . The arrival of seals in these isolated bodies of water is intriguing, also the fact that Lake Baikal is freshwater.It may have occurred in the Middle Pleistocene, 200-300 thousand years ago during the period of the maximum continental glaciations. Arctic ancestors of Caspian and Baikal seals were presumably trapped in a large ice-dammed lake at the foot of the Central Siberian ice sheet.  The nematode parasites of the pinipeds must have arrived in the isolated water bodies with their hosts (Mechersky and Suvarova, 2022).

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Life Cycle:

Pinnipeds are definitive hosts; fish and perhaps polychaetes may act as intermediate hosts.

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Ecosystem Functions and Services:

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Management:

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References:

Anderson, R.C. 2009. Keys to the nematode parasites of vertebrates: archival volume. https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845935726.0178

Carrero, R.A., Nadler, S.A. 2022. Phylogenetic analysis of the lungworms (nematoda: Metastrongyloidea) inferred using nuclear ribosomal and mitochondrial DNA sequences. The Journal of Parasitology 108: 441-452\

Dailey, M.D. 2006. Restoration of Parafilaroides (Dougherty, 1946) (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea) with description of two new species from pinnipeds of eastern central Pacific. J. Parasitol. 93:589-594.

Dougherty, E.C. 1946. The genus Aelurostrongylus Cameron, 1927 (Nematoda: Metastrongyloidea), and its relatives; with descriptions of Parafilaroides, gen. nov., and Angiostrongylus gubernaculatus sp. nov. Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington 13: 16–26.

Meschersky, I.G., Suvorova, V. 2022. Molecular characterisation of lungworms from the genus Parafilaroides (Strongylida: Filaroididae) parasitising Caspian and Baikal seals. Russian Journal of Nematology, 30:151-159

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Copyright © 1999 by Howard Ferris.
Revised: February 21, 2024.

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