Drausio Honorio Morais
@ufu.br
Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Universidade Federal de Uberlândia
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Animal Science and Zoology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Multidisciplinary
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
GIOVANNA S.G.N. PITOMBEIRA, CHARLES S. SILVA, ALINE AGUIAR, FÁBIO H. YAMADA, ROBSON W. ÁVILA, REINALDO JOSÉ DA SILVA, and DRAUSIO H. MORAIS
FapUNIFESP (SciELO)
Abstract Biological inventories are essential tools for understanding parasite diversity. In this study, we describe the helminth parasite communities associated with anuran amphibians from five localities within the Caatinga domain of Northeastern Brazil. A total of 1,198 individuals, belonging to 22 species and six anuran families (Bufonidae, Hylidae, Leptodactylidae, Microhylidae, Odontoprhynidae, and Phyllomedusidae), were examined. Of these, 629 specimens (52.5%) were parasitized, and 27,004 helminths were recovered. The helminths represented 34 taxa, including 24 Nematoda, 7 Digenea, 1 Cestoda, and 2 Acanthocephala. We present parasitological descriptors such as prevalence, abundance range, infection site, and life stage. Additionally, we report 18 new host-parasite records and provide updated data on geographical occurrence. Our findings emphasize the importance of regional surveys in expanding knowledge on host-parasite interactions and in highlighting hidden components of biodiversity within the Caatinga biome.
Ana Nunes Santos, Evelyn Lebrego Cardoso, Lorena Freitas Souza Tavares-Costa, Rayline Thaimenne Alves Figueredo, Gabriel Lima Rebêlo, Maria Isabel Müller, Edna P. Alcantara, Edson A. Adriano, Drausio Honorio Morais, Simone Mousinho Freire,et al.
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
AbstractAplectana membranosa is a cosmocercid nematode that shows affinity with various amphibian and reptile hosts, being considered a generalist species. To date, no studies have investigated the influence of host and locality in the morphological variation of this species. Thus, we analysed morphological and morphometric characters of 260 specimens of A. membranosa collected from 9 host species and 7 different localities. To complement the metric studies, we conducted phylogenetic analyses using the ribosomal genes 28S and internal transcript spacer 1 (ITS1) to determine the phylogenetic position of the species and its divergence. In the present study, it was possible to observe the cloacal papillae pattern of the species through scanning electron microscopy, and we found no morphological variation in the specimens of A. membranosa from various hosts in different localities in Brazil. The study showed low variation in all data. However, despite the low variation, we found that external environmental conditions, such as climate and latitude, influence its variation. Molecular analyses highlighted that the separation of Cosmocercidae members may be related to geographic distribution and population genetic divergence. Thus, the results illustrated in this study reiterate the importance of using integrative data to better elucidate the family’s taxonomic and evolutionary history.
Ednalva da Silva Santos, Isabella Hevily Silva Torquato, Drausio Honorio Morais, Paulo Cascon, and Charles de Sousa Silva
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
E.P. Alcantara, M.B. Ebert, C. Ferreira-Silva, L.R. Forti, D.H. Morais, G. Pérez-Ponce de León, and R. J. Silva
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Abstract During an ecological study with a near-endangered anuran in Brazil, the Schmidt’s Spinythumb frog, Crossodactylus schmidti Gallardo, 1961, we were given a chance to analyze the gastrointestinal tract of a few individuals for parasites. In this paper, we describe a new species of an allocreadiid trematode of the genus Creptotrema Travassos, Artigas & Pereira, 1928, which possesses a unique trait among allocreadiids (i.e., a bivalve shell-like muscular structure at the opening of the ventral sucker); the new species represents the fourth species of allocreadiid trematode parasitizing amphibians. Besides, the new species is distinguished from other congeners by the combination of characters such as the body size, ventral sucker size, cirrus-sac size, and by having small eggs. DNA sequences through the 28S rDNA and COI mtDNA further corroborated the distinction of the new species. Phylogenetic analyses placed the newly generated sequences in a monophyletic clade together with all other sequenced species of Creptotrema. Genetic divergences between the new species and other Creptotrema spp. varied from 2.0 to 4.2% for 28S rDNA, and 15.1 to 16.8% for COI mtDNA, providing robust validation for the recognition of the new species. Even though allocreadiids are mainly parasites of freshwater fishes, our results confirm anurans as hosts of trematodes of this family. Additionally, we propose the reallocation of Auriculostoma ocloya Liquin, Gilardoni, Cremonte, Saravia, Cristóbal & Davies, 2022 to the genus Creptotrema. This study increases the known diversity of allocreadiids and contributes to our understanding of their evolutionary relationships, host–parasite relationships, and biogeographic history.
Charles De Sousa Silva, Drausio Honorio Morais, and Paulo Cascon
Informa UK Limited
Charles De Sousa Silva, Drausio Honorio Morais, and Paulo Cascon
Informa UK Limited
Fábio Maffei, Guilherme Marson Moya, Ezequiel da Silva Sousa, and Drausio Honório Morais
Pensoft Publishers
We report a new locality for the endemic glassfrog Vitreorana franciscana Santana, Barros, Pontes & Feio, 2015 from Brazilian Cerrado, from the municipality of Nova Ponte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Field visits were conducted in 2023 at Fazenda Brejão and resulted in the fourth record of this species, which expands this species’ geographic distribution by 150 km to the east. With the new record, the minimum convex polygon for the species is now 18,210 km2.
Charles De Sousa-Silva, Edna Paulino Alcantara, Cristiana Ferreira-Silva, Drausio Honorio Morais, and Paulo Cascon
Informa UK Limited
Edna Paulino Alcantara, Maria Isabel Müller, Leticia Pereira Úngari, Cristiana Ferreira-Silva, Enzo Emmerich, Elane Guerreiro Giese, Drausio Honorio Morais, André Luiz Quagliatto Santos, Lucia Helena O'Dwyer, and Reinaldo José Silva
Elsevier BV
Maria Isabel Müller, Drausio Honorio Morais, Lorena Freitas Souza Tavares da Costa, Francisco Tiago de Vasconcelos Melo, Elane Guerreiro Giese, Robson Waldemar Ávila, and Reinaldo José da Silva
Elsevier BV
Charles De Sousa, Samanta Silva De Oliveira, Drausio Honorio Morais, Raul Henrique Da Silva Pinheiro, and Robson Waldemar Ávila
Informa UK Limited
ALINE AGUIAR, DRAUSIO HONORIO MORAIS, LIDIANE A. FIRMINO SILVA, LUCIANO ALVES DOS ANJOS, OTTILIE CAROLINA FOSTER, and REINALDO JOSÉ DA SILVA
Magnolia Press
The richness of metazoan endoparasites associated with 25 anuran species from a transitional area between Cerrado and Atlantic Rain Forest from Brazil is here presented. We present and discuss the type-host and localities, the current taxonomic status, remarks on morphological features, biological cycle, and new records of these parasites. Nine hundred and seventy-eight anurans of four families (Bufonidae, Hylidae, Microhylidae, and Leptodactylidae) were collected during four expeditions in a private forested area from Northwest of São Paulo state. The richness of metazoan parasites was composed of nematodes (21), acanthocephalans (2), digeneans (18), monogeneans (1), cestodes (1), and oligochaetes (1), resulting in 44 taxa that are presented with their respective prevalence and the range of abundance in host populations. Among these parasites, nine were found in immature stages which usually complete their life cycle in fishes, snakes, birds or mammals, attesting the trophic relation of amphibians and their parasites within the regional vertebrate community. We reported 23 anuran species as new hosts resulting in 79 new associations between anurans and parasites. Gorgoderina diaster and Bursotrema tetracotyloides are reported for the first time in Brazil, and our finding of Clinostomum cf. complanatum represents the first in South American anurans.
Maria Isabel Müller, Enzo Emmerich, Edna Paulino de Alcantara, Letícia Pereira Ungari, Mariana Bertholdi Ebert, Drausio Honorio Morais, Lucia Helena O’Dwyer, and Reinaldo José da Silva
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
EDNA P. ALCANTARA, CRISTIANA FERREIRA-SILVA, LUCAS R. FORTI, DRAUSIO H. MORAIS, and REINALDO J. SILVA
Magnolia Press
Aplectana longa n. sp. (Ascaridida: Cosmocercidae) from the small intestine of Gastrotheca microdiscus (Amphibia: Hemiphractidae) is described and illustrated. The new species is characterized by the combination of a unique set of morphological characters: 1) Large body size in both sexes; 2) Lateral alae absent; 3) Gubernaculum present, small, thin, weakly sclerotized, pointed at the distal end and curved proximally at the end, with a small and punctiform papilla-like dilation, and 4) Caudal papillae arrangement (9+1:0:6). The distribution pattern of caudal papillae is similar only to Aplectana chamaeleonsis. Nevertheless, Aplectana longa n. sp. is easily differentiated from this species by the arrangement of precloacal papillae. This is the 57th species of the Aplectana and the 16th species reported from Brazil.
NATALIA B.C. MEDEIROS, MARCOS RODRIGUES, DRAUSIO H. MORAIS, and MARÍLIA D. NUNES-RODRIGUES
FapUNIFESP (SciELO)
DH Morais, MV Rodrigues, RW Ávila, and RJ da Silva
Inter-Research Science Center
Emerging infectious diseases in wild animals related to humans have received greater attention in recent years. Mycobacteriosis is a bacterial disease of animal and human importance. Mycobacterium gordonae infects the skin and internal organs of free-ranging amphibians and is considered the least pathogenic member of the Mycobacteriaceae to humans. However, information about its infection and pathogenesis in wild amphibians is still lacking. A total of 1306 amphibian specimens belonging to 6 families, 12 genera, and 21 species were collected and dissected during a helminthological survey of 7 municipalities in southern Ceará state, Caatinga (eco)region, northeast Brazil. Of these, 17 specimens (0.76%), belonging to 2 families and 4 species (Leptodactylus macrosternum, n = 2; L. vastus, n = 10; Pseudopaludicola pocoto, n = 2; Rhinella jimi, n = 3), presented infections that consisted of calcification nodules in the coelomic cavity, kidney, liver, lung, gut, and pancreas. The nodules were examined by histopathology and PCR. The bacteria were identified as M. gordonae by molecular analyses. Infected animals presented with hepatocellular vacuolar degeneration, karyolysis, and karyorrhexis, hepatic portal congestion, hemorrhage, mononuclear cellular infiltration, melanomacrophage center hyperplasia, and granulomas in varying stages of development with intralesional acid-fast bacilli. This study is the first report of M. gordonae in these amphibian species, in which results of molecular analyses confirmed the presence of M. gordonae in natural environments and histopathology confirmed the typical lesion of mycobacteriosis in amphibians from northeastern Brazil.
Ricardo Bassini-Silva, Matheus Huang-Bastos, Drausio Honorio Morais, Edna Paulino Alcantara, Robson Waldemar Ávila, Cal Welbourn, Ron Ochoa, Darci Moraes Barros-Battesti, and Fernando de Castro Jacinavicius
Informa UK Limited
Richard C. Pacheco, Thiago F. Martins, Thiago B. F. Semedo, Drausio H. Morais, Herbert S. Soares, Andréia L. T. Melo, Antônio H. H. Minervino, Leopoldo F. de O. Bernardi, Igor da C. L. Acosta, Francisco B. Costa,et al.
International Journal of Acarology Informa UK Limited
D.H. Morais, M.I. Müller, F.T.V. Melo, A. Aguiar, Y. Willkens, C. de Sousa Silva, E.G. Giese, R.W. Ávila, and Reinaldo José da Silva
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
AbstractRhabdias pocoton. sp. is herein described from the lungs of the swamp frogPseudopaludicola pocotoMagalhães, Loebmann, Nogueira, Kokubum, Baptista, Haddad & Garda, 2014, from the Caatinga biome in the state of Ceará, in north-eastern Brazil. The new species is characterized by a body that dilates posteriorly, six small lips (protuberances) and two rounded lateral expansions of cuticular inflation on the anterior end, each containing an amorphous gland-like structure inside and a short and conical tail. Additionally, molecular analysis and comparison of the partial mitochondrial cytochromecoxidase I sequence ofR.pocoton. sp. revealed genetic divergence between the new species and the sequences ofRhabdiasspp. previously deposited in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis grouped the new taxon into theR. pseudosphaerocephalaspecies complex +R. glaurungiclade. The new discovery represents the 19th species ofRhabdiasspp. described in the Neotropical region, the ninth in Brazil and the first species ofRhabdiasfound parasitizing South American frogs of the genusPseudopaludicola, as well as the first Caatinga biome species ofRhabdias.
ROBSON WALDEMAR ÁVILA, DRAUSIO HONORIO MORAIS, RENATA PEREZ, ANDRÉ PANSONATO, VINICIUS TADEU DE CARVALHO, ROMMEL R. ROJAS, MARCELO GORDO, and IZENI PIRES FARIAS
Magnolia Press
Neotropical toads from the Rhinella margaritifera species group have been considered a taxonomic puzzle for a long time. Because of the high morphological similarity and an unknown number of undescribed taxa among the species of this group, we did an extensive search for character distribution within all nominal taxa. Herein we describe Rhinella parecis sp. nov. a new species from Southern Brazilian Amazon. We provide a morphological diagnosis, morphometric comparisons with similar species, and a molecular phylogenetic hypothesis on the relationships of the new species. Rhinella parecis sp. nov. is assigned to the R. margaritifera group and differs from others species by snout-vent length ranging 40.7–53.5 mm in males (n=12) and 44.9–54.8 mm in females (n=4), snout rounded in dorsal view, acute with fleshy ridge extending to tip of snout in lateral view, canthal and pre-orbital crests absent, supra-orbital, parietal and supra-tympanic crests present and low, dorsolateral row of tubercles present, bony protrusion at the angle of jaws absent, tympanum evident, vertebral apophyses absent and toes half-webbed. The new species is the 20th species associated to the R. margaritifera group distributed in the Chapada dos Parecis, a probable center of endemism in states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso, Brazil.
A. Aguiar, D.H. Morais, F.H. Yamada, L.A. dos Anjos, L.A.F. da Silva, and R.J. da Silva
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Abstract Habitats characterized by geographic isolation such as islands have been studied using different organisms as models for understanding the dynamic and insular patterns of biodiversity. Determinants of parasite richness in insular host populations have been conducted mainly with mammals and birds, showing that parasite richness decreases in insular areas. In the present study, we predicted that the type of environment (insular or continental) can influence the richness, diversity and abundance of parasites associated with the endemic frog Haddadus binotatus (Spix, 1824). We sampled frogs in two insular and two mainland fragments to survey their helminth parasites. The total richness was composed of 15 taxa of Nematoda and two of Acanthocephala, and the community composition of the two islands had more similarities between them than the two mainland localities. The insular effect was positive for richness and abundance of helminths, and no significant effect was observed on helminth diversity – even the mean diversity presented high numbers for the islands. We presumed that insular hosts could have lost some parasites in the colonization process when these continental islands were separated from the mainland, approximately 11,000 years ago. However, the high richness and abundance on islands can be explained by an epidemiological argument, which considers high population density due to insularity and other features of the host as factors that increase parasite transmission success among individuals.
Carla Bonetti Madelaire, Lidiane Franceschini, Drausio Honorio Morais, Fernando Ribeiro Gomes, and Reinaldo José da Silva
American Society of Parasitologists
Lucas Rodriguez Forti, Mariana Retuci Pontes, Edna Paulino Alcantara, Drausio Honorio Morais, Reinaldo José da Silva, Pavel Dodonov, and Luís Felipe Toledo
Wiley
AbstractDeforestation can compromise ecological processes and biotic interactions, including the host–parasite relationship. While some parasites infect only one host, others require multiple hosts to complete their complex life cycles. In this context, different parasites may have different demands and traits and may have specific responses to habitat degradation. Here, we tested whether forest cover has different effects on different frogs' parasites, as chytrid (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis; Bd) and helminths (Platyhelminthes and Nematoda). We collected data on two stream frog species (Crossodactylus caramaschiiandCrossodactylus schmidti) from nine sites in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, with forest cover ranging from 20% to 99%. Bd presence and load increased with decreasing forest cover, but the opposite was observed for nematodes. Load of monoxenous and heteroxenous helminths increased with forest cover. We suggest that variations in potential host diversity, microclimate conditions, and host immune response may be responsible for the contrasting patterns found for micro‐(Bd) and macroparasites (helminths, except Platyhelminthes). Our work brings evidence of how habitat reduction can affect host–parasite relationships, including infection with the pathogen responsible for hundreds of global species extinctions.
CICERA SILVILENE LEITE MATIAS, DRAUSIO HONORIO MORAIS, and ROBSON WALDEMAR ÁVILA
Magnolia Press
Physaloptera nordestina n. sp. (Nematoda: Physalopteridae) is described from the stomach of the snakes Oxybelis aeneus (Wagler), Pseudoboa nigra (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril) and Xenodon merremii (Wagler) (Squamata: Snakes), collected in northeastern Brazil. The new species has males with ornamented caudal alae connected ventrally, anterior to the cloaca, 21 caudal papillae, including four pedunculated and 13 sessile pairs (six surrounding the cloaca and three at tail), spicules sub-equal in size and with different shape. In addition, the females have the vulva located on the anterior third of the body and two to four uterine branches. Here we present the ninth species of Physaloptera that parasitizes reptiles from Brazil.