Dr. Kassai Tibor - Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 10. (Budapest, 1977)
Parasit. Hung 10. 1977. Parasitic Nematodes of Microtus arvalis (Rodentia) in Hungary Dr. Ferenc MÉSZÁROS Zoological Department of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest "Parasitic nematodes of Microtus arvalis (Rodentia) in Hungary. "- Mészáros, F, - Parasit. Hung. J_0\_ 67-83. 1977. ABSTRACT. Six species of nematodes are reported from the field vole in Hungary: Heligmosomum costellatum, H. mixtum , Heligmosomoides iaevis, Boreo- strongylus minutus, Syphacia nigeriana , Trichocephalus muris . The morphology of the most frequently occurring H. costellatum , H. Iaevis and S. nigeriana as well as of B. minutus is described in detail. Range of hosts and distributional data of these species are also critically surveyed with special reference to the changes brought about in the last decade in the taxonomy of these nematodes. The field vole or common vole (Microtus arvalis Pall. , 1779) is represented by diverse subspecies in Europe, Central Asia, Southern Siberia, Mongolia and North-East China. That species is a major pest in the agriculture and well adapted to the conditions created by the mechanized, large scale farming. Parasitic helminths of that host species have been investigated by several authors. TENORA et al. (1973) summarized all relevant data on helminths of M. arvalis in Europe. According to their ascertainment 49 species of parasitic helminths (with synonymic species and including 25 nematodes) have.been reported from that host species. In addition to these, the occurrence in the field vole of Gongylonema neoplasticum (POPESCU et al, , 1974) and Thominx gastrica (PROKOPIC and GENOV, 1974) have also been reported from Rumania and Bulgaria, respectively. It is to be stated that the taxonomy of the parasitic nematodes of M. arvalis is far from being fully clarified. Nevertheless, in the last decade considerable changes have been proposed by DURETTE-DESSET (1968 a, b, 1971), QUENTIN (1971) and TENORA and MÉSZÁROS (1971, 1975) concerning the taxonomy of common parasitic nematodes ( Heligmosomum , Heligmoso moides , Syphacia ) of rodents, thus we have now a somewhat clearer picture on the range of hosts of these nematodes. These taxonomic changes necessitate thorough revision of the data of related works published formerly. Such revision would greatly facilitate to ascertain the valid names of old taxa according to recent concept of taxonomy. E.g. previous publications usually mention Syphacia obvelata from M. arvalis, a species to be termed to the present knowledge by all probability as S. nigeriana. Besides taxonomical-faunistical investigation of helminths living in the field vole, intensive studies had begun from the early seventies on the interrelationships between the population dinamics of the hosts and the extensity and intensity of their infection with parasites. The basic question was to clarify the possible correlation between the age composition of host populations and the extensity and intensity of helminth infection. For this purpose so called indicator species were used. The first results of these studies - not lacking also contradictory elements - were published by KISIELEWSKA (1971, 1974), TENORA (1972), KISIELEWSKA and ZUBCZEWSKA (1973), KISIELEWSKA et al. (1973), PROKOPIÖ (1973), PROKOPIC et al. (1973), BABA (1974), KRASOWSKA (1974), ZUBCZEWSKA (1974).
