John M. Kinsella
Ray W. Snow
Bryan G. Falk
Robert Reed
Scott M. Goetz
Frank J. Mazzotti
Craig Guyer
Christina M. Romagosa
Melissa A. Miller
2020
<p><span>Invasive Burmese pythons (</span><i>Python bivittatus<span> </span></i><span>) have introduced a nonnative pentastomid parasite (</span><i>Raillietiella orientalis<span> </span></i><span>) to southern Florida that has spilled over to infect native snakes. However, the extent of spillover, regarding prevalence and intensity, is unknown. We examined native snakes (</span><i>n<span> </span></i><span> = 523) and invasive pythons (</span><i>n<span> </span></i><span> = 1003) collected from Florida to determine the degree to which parasite spillover is occurring. We found </span><i>R. orientalis<span> </span></i><span>has infected 13 species of native snakes collected from areas of sympatry with pythons. Prevalence and infection intensity of </span><i>R. orientalis<span> </span></i><span>were significantly higher among native snakes compared with pythons. Moreover, adult female pentastomes achieved larger sizes and represented a greater proportion of the overall parasite population in native snakes vs. pythons, indicating native snakes are more competent hosts of </span><i>R. orientalis<span> </span></i><span>than pythons. We also examined native snakes from regions of allopatry with pythons to determine how far </span><i>R. orientalis<span> </span></i><span>has spread. We found an infected native snake 348 km north of the northernmost infected python. Our data show that native snakes are highly competent hosts of </span><i>R. orientalis<span> </span></i><span>and have facilitated the rapid spread of this nonnative pentastome beyond the range of its invasive host.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1002/ecs2.3153
en
Wiley
Highly competent native snake hosts extend the range of an introduced parasite beyond its invasive Burmese python host
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