Fig 1.
Distribution of ecological zones in Nigeria following [20] (top left), host Xenopus species (top right), and four major groups of Xenopus parasites (bottom row). Numbered ecological zones are: (1) Sahel Savanna, (2) Sudan Savanna, (3) Guinea Savanna, (4) Jos Plateau, (5) Montane Forest, (6) Derived Savanna, (7) Lowland Rainforest, (8) Freshwater Swamp Forest, and (9) Coastal Vegetation.
A small red box on the inset in the top left panel shows the location of Nigeria; the large red box on this panel demarcates the area depicted in other panels, which illustrate sampling localities of frogs (top right) and parasites (bottom row). Parasite species are labeled except the nematodes where species are represented by the following symbols: Camallanus kaapstaadi: blue diamonds; Chabaudus leberrei: green circles; Batrachocamallanus occidentalis: red triangles; Batrachocamallanus xenopodis: orange star.
Table 1.
Observed distributions of parasites in Xenopus host species, Nigeria ecological zones, and Xenopus host organs.
Fig 2.
Photographs of (a) a female Camallanus kaapstaadi; (b) a male Batrachocamallanus sp.; (c) a female Batrachocamallanus xenopodis; (d, e) a female and male Batrachocamallanus occidentalis, respectively; (f,g,h,i) anterior & posterior views of a male and femaleChabaudus leberrei, respectively; (j,k,l) scolex, immature proglottid, and gravid proglottid of Cephalochlamys compactus,, respectively; (m,n,o) scolex, immature proglottid, and gravid proglottid of Cephalochlamys namaquensis, respectively; (p) Protopolystoma xenopodis; (q) Protopolystoma microsclera; (r) Protopolystoma occidentalis; (s) Diplodiscus fischthalicus; (t) Progonimodiscus doyeri; (u) Oligolecithus elianae; (v) Strigeatoid metacercaria (a larvae of an unidentified digenetic trematode).
The scale bar of 5 mm for all panels is in (a).
Fig 3.
Phylogenetic inferences among Sanger sequences of Nigerian Xenopus species (top left insert) and their helminth parasite (Nematoda, Platyhelminthes: Cestoda, Trematoda (Digenea) Monogenea); black circles over nodes indicate bootstrap support of at least 90%, except for terminal nodes where this is omitted for clarity.
For the host phylogeny, two divergence time estimates are provided based on mitochondrial (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) data, as described in [8].