New host and locality records of snake intestinal nematode Kalicephalus spp in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe three species ofKalicephalus found in three species of snake (Ophiophagus hannah, Ptyas mucosus, andNaja Sputatrix) during research on Capture Snake for Trading in Java and Snake Biodiversity in Kalimantan Islands.Methods: Specimens for light microscopy examination were fixed with warm70% alcohol, cleared and mounted in lactophenol for wet mounting. Drawings were made with the aid of a drawing tube attached to a Nikon compound microscope. Measurements were given in micrometers (μ) as the average of findings, followed by the range in parentheses, unless otherwise stated.Results:Kalicephalus (Costatus) indicus was found from7Ptyas mucosus, Kalicephalus bungarifrom2Naja sputatrixand1 Kalicephalus (Costatus)indicusandKalicephalusassimilis found from1Ophiophagus hannah. The morphology and measurement of three species ofKalicephalus found in this study were close to those described before.Conclusions:New finding of host ofKalicephalus (Costatus)indicus and Kalicephalus bungari was a snake species ofNaja sputatrix. New records of locality were Kalimantan island as the new locality ofKalicephalusassimilis, and Java island was new locality ofKalicephalus (Costatus)indicus.