Heligmosomoides thomomyos Sp. n. (Nematoda: Heligmosomidae) from Pocket Gophers, Thomomys spp. (Rodentia: Geomyidae), in Oregon and California

Scott Lyell Gardner, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Douglas Jasmer

Document Type Article

Published in Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington (1983) 50(2): 278-284. Copyright 1983, the Helminthological Society of Wahington. Used by permission.

Abstract

Nematodes of the genus Heligmosomoides Hall, 1916 occur most commonly in arvicolid rodents. Of the 26 known species of the genus, 11 have been recorded from Nearctic rodents (Rausch and Rausch, 1973). In North America, Heligmosomoides spp. have been recorded not only from voles, but also from cricetids and murids. Heligmosomoides spp. characteristically inhabit the small intestine or cecum of their host, where they usually are found tightly coiled around the intestinal or cecal villi (Durette-Desset, 1971).

Nematodes representing an undescribed species of Heligmosomoides were found by us in the small intestine of pocket gophers (Geomyidae) of two species, Thomomys bulbivorus (Richardson), from Benton County, Oregon, and T. bottae (Eydoux and Gervais), from Humboldt County, California (collected respectively by SLG and DPJ). Rodents of the genus Thomomys have an extensive geographic range in central and western North America. Thomomys bulbivorus is endemic to the Willamette Valley of Oregon, and T. bottae occurs from southwestern Oregon southward to Arizona and northern Mexico (Hall and Kelson, 1959; Ingles, 1965).

It is the purpose of the present paper to describe this nematode, which is the first species of Heligmosomoides to be recorded from rodents of the family Geomyidae.