First assessment of the endoparasitic nematode fauna of four psammophilous species of Tropiduridae (Squamata: Iguania endemic to north-eastern Brazil.

Tropiduridae (Squamata: Iguania) is a lizard taxon widely distributed in the neotropics. Among its representatives, some species are classified as generalists regarding habitat usage. Others exhibit a very restricted and probably relict distribution, and are strongly associated with predominantly sandy and dry habitats. Within this rather ecologically similar than phylogenetically closely related group we examined specimens of Eurolophosaurus amathites, E. divaricatus, Tropidurus hygomi, T. psam-monastes for endoparasites. In all four species examined we recorded parasitic nema-todes (Nemathelminthes: Nematoda). At least three nematode species were recovered: Parapharyngodon sp., Physaloptem lutzi and Strongyluris oscari, with Ph. lutzi being the most abundant parasite encountered in all lizard species examined. In spite of the hosts' habitat specialization, these parasites are also found frequently in non-psammo-philous tropidurid species as well as in other squamates. Individual species richness per lizard was low, with usually just one species parasitizing at a time. These are the first parasites registered for these tropidurids and constitute a total of six new host records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]