A new species of the genus Hammerschmidtiella, H. eltalaensis sp. nov. parasitizing a brown cockroach Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister from El Tala river, Catamarca, Argentina, is described and illustrated. It is characterized by having the cuticle striated, without lateral alae, mouth with three toothed lips and eight labial papillae, amphids small and pore shaped, buccal capsule short, wide, with four mobile teeth, oesophagus with metacorpus valvate, isthmus cylindrical and thin surrounded by nerve ring, and a rounded basal bulb heavily muscled and valvate, the vulva is slightly protruding and lies in the anterior third of the body, didelphic, prodelphic, eggs small and elongate, the male with one spicule, without gubernaculum, the genital papillae arranged in one pair of small preanal papillae, and two postanal papillae, one pair is the base of the tail appendage. Tail appendage very long, thin, and reaching almost one third of the length of the body in the female. In the male the posterior end of the body abruptly truncated posterior to anus with spine-like long tail appendage.Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectore

Camino, Nora Beatriz

Villalobos, Leonor Cristina de

Acta Parasitologica

English

SEDICI - Repositorio de la UNLP

DOI: 10.2478/s11686-012-0002-0
© W. Stefan´ski Institute of Parasitology, PAS
Acta Parasitologica, 2012, 57(1), 61–66; ISSN 1230-2821
A new species of Hammerschmidtiella Chitwood, 1932
(Nematoda, Thelastomatidae) parasite of the brown 
cockroach Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister, 1838 
(Blattodea, Blattidae) from Argentina
Nora Beatriz Camino1,2 and Cristina de Villalobos1,3*
1Investigador CIC Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 526 e/10 y 11, La Plata; 
2Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores Calle 2 nº 584, 1900 La Plata; 3Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo, 
UNLP, Argentina
Abstract
A new species of the genus Hammerschmidtiella, H. eltalaensis sp. nov. parasitizing a brown cockroach Periplaneta brunnea
Burmeister from El Tala river, Catamarca, Argentina, is described and illustrated. It is characterized by having the cuticle stri-
ated, without lateral alae, mouth with three toothed lips and eight labial papillae, amphids small and pore shaped, buccal cap-
sule short, wide, with four mobile teeth, oesophagus with metacorpus valvate, isthmus cylindrical and thin surrounded by nerve
ring, and a rounded basal bulb heavily muscled and valvate, the vulva is slightly protruding and lies in the anterior third of the
body, didelphic, prodelphic, eggs small and elongate, the male with one spicule, without gubernaculum, the genital papillae
arranged in one pair of small preanal papillae, and two postanal papillae, one pair is the base of the tail appendage. Tail ap-
pendage very long, thin, and reaching almost one third of the length of the body in the female. In the male the posterior end of
the body abruptly truncated posterior to anus with spine-like long tail appendage.
Keywords
Nematoda, Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis, new species, cockroach
Introduction
The genus Hammerschmidtiella has been proposed by Chit-
wood (1932) to locate Oxyuris diesingi Hammerschmidt, 1838,
and O. blattae-orientalis Hammerschmidt, 1847. Chitwood
(1932) redescribed these species and put both of them in the
synonym Hammerschmidtiella diesingi (also see Serrano
Sanchez 1945; Rao 1958; Biswas and Chakravarty 1963; Rao
and Rao 1965;  Farooqui 1966; Kloss 1966; Gupta and Kaur
1978; Spiridonov 1984; Adamson and Nasher 1987; Zervos
1987; Singh and Kaur 1988; Shah 2007).
Adamson and van Waerebeke (1992) made a revision of the
family Thelastomatidae and listed eleven species of Ham-
merschmidtiella parasites of Diplopoda and Blattodea from Eu-
rope, India, Asia, New Zealand, and North and South Amer-
ica. In their review these authors comment that H. poinari
Gupta et Kaur, 1978 may be a synonym of H. diesingi and con-
sidered H. aspiculus Biswas et Chakravarty, 1963 as valid
species, although Farooqui (1966) considered this species a
synonym of H. diesingi.
Recently Jex et al. (2005) described another new species,
H. hochi in cockroaches from Australia and compared it with
the species of the genus Hammerschmidtiella, although Singh
and Agarwal (1998) considered H. singhi Rao et Rao, 1965 a
synonym of H. diesingi. The fact that species of the genus
Hammerschmidtiella had been collected from cockroaches
(Jex et al. 2005) is important because cockroaches can carry
human pathogens, such as Salmonella and E. coli, which can
result in human diseases, such as food poisoning or diarrhea.
They also can transmit the hepatitis virus and have been known
to spread dysentery and typhoid fever (Brenner et al. 1987,
Vythilingam et al. 1997). Products of cockroach infestations,
including saliva, feces and cast skins, are sources of allergens
and develop allergies that can trigger asthma in people, espe-
cially children (Eggleston et al. 1999; Sporik et al. 1999;
Baumholtz et al. 2008). For all these reasons the cockroaches
*Corresponding author: nemainst@cepave.edu.ar
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Nora Beatriz Camino and Cristina de Villalobos62
must be controlled, eliminating the use of insecticides that
cause resistance in insects, and replacing them with natural par-
asites and pathogens. 
In this investigation we described a new species called
H. eltalaensis that belongs to the genus Hammerschmidtiella,
parasitizing a brown cockroach Periplaneta brunnea from Ar-
gentina.
Materials and methods
Twenty nymphs of the cockroach Periplaneta brunnea
Burmeister, 1838 (Blattodea, Blattidae) were found in the river
coast of El Tala river (S 28°27´34,26´´ – W 65°50´28,11´´ ),
Catamarca province, Argentina. They were collected by hand
during 2010 autumn and were put in individual paper con-
tainers. The insects were dissected in Petri dishes filled with
distilled water under a stereoscope microscope. A transverse
incision was made along the posterior end of the abdomen and
the digestive tract was removed to obtain the parasites. The
nematodes (n = 57) were killed by placing them in distilled
water at 60°C for 2 min. They were removed to 50% TAF so-
lution in water for 48 hours then into pure TAF. Forty seven
specimens were used for drawings, photographed and meas-
ured with the aid of a lucida camera mounted on a Zeiss com-
pound microscope. Measurements were made using an ocular
micrometer and are given as the mean ± standard deviation
followed by the range in parentheses. All measurements are
given in micrometres. 
In order to develop a more complete description of char-
acters, we carry out an ultrastructural analysis using a scan-
ning electron microscope (SEM), which has proven to provide
a better assessment of cuticular detail and to clarify the status
of the nematodes. The ten remaining specimens were fixed in
a cold solution of 1.5% glutaraldehyde/1.5% formaldehyde in
0.1 M acidulate buffer (pH 7.35) overnight, postfixed in cold
aqueous solution of 1% osmium peroxide overnight. The ne-
matodes were dehydrated in an increasing ethanol series, crit-
ically point-dried, mounted on bronze blocks and gold-sputter
coated and observed and photographed using a JEOL JSM
6360 LV.
Holotype and allotype specimens are deposited in the In-
vertebrate Department, Museo de Ciencias Naturales, La
Plata, Argentina (MLP). Paratypes are deposited in the Centro
de Estudios Parasitológicos y Vectores (CEPAVE), Nematoda
collection (NC), La Plata, Argentina.
Results
Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov.
Type material: Holotype and allotype (MLP). Paratypes. 
Type locality: El Tala river (S 28°27´34´´ – W 65°50´28´´ ),
Catamarca province, Argentina.
Host: Nymphs of the cockroach Periplaneta brunnea (L.)
(Blattodea, Blattidae).
Etymology: The name refers to the location where the host
and the nematode were found.
Site of infection: Intestine, midgut.
Prevalence: 60%.
Number of nematodes per nymph: 1–12.
Description
Female (Table II) has the cephalic extremity rounded (Figs 1,
9, 10). Cuticle striated with rings along the entire body (Figs.
1, 9, 10). Mouth surrounded by three toothed lips and eight
labial papillae (Figs 7, 8). Amphids small and pore shaped
(Figs 3, 8). Buccal capsule short, wide with two mobile teeth
on each side of mesostom (Figs 3, 7). Oesophagus short and
Table I. Reports of cockroaches as hosts of Hammerschmidtiella species
Cockroaches species
Hammerschmidtiella References
species
Blatta orientalis H. diesingi see revisión Adamson M.L. 
and van Waerebeke D. (1992)
Blatta orientalis H. neyrai Serrano Sánchez A. (1945)
Ceratoblatta unulivitta H. mackenziei Zervos S. (1987)
Corydia sp. H. singhi Rao P.N. and Rao V.J. (1965)
Eubladerus sp. H. acreana Kloss G.R. (1966)
Hormetica scrobiculata H. diesingi Kloss G.R. (1966)
Leucophaea maderae H. diesingi Pessoa S.B. and Correa C. (1926)
Panesthia cribrata H. hochi Jex A.R. et al. (2005)
Periplaneta americana H. diesingi see revision Adamson M.L. 
and van Waerebeke D. (1992)
Periplaneta americana H. basiri Singh H.S. and Kaur H. (1988)
Periplaneta americana H. hochi Shah (2007)
Periplaneta australasiae H. diesingi Jarry D.T. (1964)
Petasodes mouffeti H. diesingi Kloss G.R. (1966)
Periplaneta brunnea H. eltalaensis sp. nov. this report
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A new species of Hammerschmidtiella 63
Figs 1–6. Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov. 1. Anterior end of female, oesophagus, vagina and eggs. 2. Posterior end of male in lat-
eral view. 3. Buccal capsule of female. 4. Posterior end of female. 5. Posterior end of male in ventral view. 6. Anterior end of male. Scale bars
1, 4 = 100 µm; 2, 3, 5, 6 = 50 µm
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Nora Beatriz Camino and Cristina de Villalobos64
strong, the posterior part of the corpus forms the metacorpus
valvate, and therefore, the anterior and posterior parts of the
corpus are differentiated easily, isthmus cylindrical and thin
surrounded by nerve ring, ending in a rounded basal bulb
heavily muscled and valvate (Figs 1, 6, 9). Excretory pore is
situated at the base of the oesophagus (Figs 1, 6). The vulva is
slightly protruding and lies in the anterior third of the body
(Figs 1, 9). Vagina long and heavily muscled (Fig. 1). Didel-
phic, prodelphic. Eggs small and elongate, with smooth shell
(Figs 1, 10). Tail appendage very long and thin, reaching one
third of the length of the body (Figs 4, 9).
Male (Table II) has the anterior end pointed, with a thin cu-
ticle, slightly visible or absent striation (Fig. 4). The lateral alae
are absent. Mouth and stoma are similar in structure to that of
the female. Amphids are very small. The oesophagus resem-
bles the female, with metacorpus and basal bulb valvate, sep-
arated by an isthmus cylindrical with the nerve ring. Excretory
pore is located at the base of the oesophagus. There is one
spicule that is straight and strong, without gubernaculum (Figs
2, 11). Genital papillae arranged in one pair of small preanal
papillae, and two pairs of postanal papillae, the last one at the
base of the tail appendage (Figs 5, 11). Posterior end of the
Table II. Morphometric data for Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov., measurements in µm ± S.D. (range)
Females (n = 27) Males (n = 20)
Mean ± S.D. (range) Mean ± S.D. (range)
Total length 4,657 ± 1,6 (3,025–6,132) 1,660 ± 348 (1,210.5–1,927)
Diameter of head at level of cephalic papillae 39.0 ± 1.6 (37.4–40.6) 25.7 ± 3.5 (22.1–29.5)
Stoma length 10.1 ± 0.4 (9.8–10.5) 6.7 ± 0.8 (5.3–6.9)
Stoma width 12.1 ± 0.7 (11.5–12.8) 9.2 ± 0.6 (8.9–10.4)
Width of body at level of nerve ring 135 ± 18.9 (116.2–155) 75.6 ± 5.2 (70.2–82.4)
Maximum body diameter 351 ± 75.3 (276–432) 113.4 ± 5.6 (108–120)
Width of body at level of posterior end 129.2 ± 36.6 (93–166) 42.2 ± 3.2 (38.3–44.5)
Width of body at level of vulva 353.7 ± 72.2 (282–446)
Distance anterior end to nerve ring 466.3 ± 27.3 (439–498.7) 135 ± 36.3 (98–158.6)
Oesophagus length 604.3 ± 72.5 (532–677) 286.2 ± 79.3 (206.2–367)
Distance from anterior end to excretory pore 608.5 ± 52.2 µm (533.4–678) 383.4 ± 75.2 (307.6–462)
Vagina length 386.2 ± 62.6 (325–450.6)
Vagina width 48.6 ± 4.1 (43–52)
*V% 19.8 ± 2.2 (17.5–22.6)
Length and width of eggs 95.6 ± 14.7 (81.3–109.8) × 
50.8 ± 6.3 (45–57.6)
Spicule length 43.2 ± 2.2 (39.5–45.4)
Spicule width 4.3 ± 0.3 (3.9–5.8)
Tail-appendage length 1,152.3 ± 92.7 (1,062.6–2,043.2) 195.5 ± 3.6 (191.5–205.2)
*V: (distance from anterior end to vulva/body length) × 100.
Figs 7–8. Scanning electron micrographs. Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov. 7. Anterior end of female showing three toothed lips,
teeth in the buccal capsule. 8. Anterior end of female, pore of the amphid (arrow). Scale bars = 5 µm
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A new species of Hammerschmidtiella 65
body abruptly truncated posterior to anus with spine-like long
tail appendage (Figs 2, 11).
Discussion 
Our new species, Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis exhibits
some unique features: mouth with three toothed lips, buccal
capsule short, wide with two mobile teeth on each side of
mesostom, and the male genital papillae arranged in one pair
of small preanal papillae, and two pairs of postanal papillae,
in which the last one is at the base of the tail appendage. The
set of all these characters justify its description as a new
species. Hammerschmidtiella acreana Kloss, 1966, can be dis-
tinguished from our new species by having the metacarpus
more developed than the basal bulb, the vulva is located near
the middle of the body and the male is described only men-
tioning a series of caudal papillae (no mention of number),
without preanal papillae. H. andersoni Adamson et Nasher,
1987, is different by having the oral opening surrounded by
six inner papillae and eight pairs digitiform labial papillae, the
male has five pairs of caudal papillae, one pair subventral and
one pair lateral preanal, one pair lateral adanal, one pair
postanal and one pair at base of caudal appendage, and a small
gubernaculum is present. H. basiri Singh et Kaur, 1988, is dis-
tinguished by the cuticle which is coarsely annulated along
the body, mouth is guarded by eight submedian labiopapillae,
the stoma with three tooth-like projections, the nerve ring is
anterior to metacarpus, the excretory pore is at level of isth-
mus, the vulva position is anteriorly than our new species, and
the male has one pair preanal papillae and a pair of postanal
papillae. H. diesingi (Hammerschmidt, 1838), can be differ-
entiated by the nerve ring situated anterior to metacorpus, the
excretory pore at the base of the oesophagus, and in the male
by one pair preanal papillae near the anus and a single un-
paired ventral papilla near base of tail appendage. H. hochi
Jex et al., 2005, is different mainly by having the pear shaped
eggs, the nerve ring is posterior to metacorpus, the lateral alae
are absent, and the tail is conoid and subulate. H. manohari
Rao, 1958, is distinguished by the cuticle, striated throughout
the length of the body, the nerve ring surrounding the meta-
corpus, and in the male by one pair of preanal, two pairs of
adanal and an unpaired median postanal papillae; of the two
pairs of adanal papillae, one pair lies close to the anus and the
other pair, which is well developed, projects laterally from the
tail appendage. H. neyrai Serrano Sánchez, 1945, is charac-
terized by the absence of the lateral alae, the nerve ring is an-
Figs 9–10. Light micrographs. Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov. 9–10. Females. Eggs (arrow). Scale bars = 100 µm
Fig. 11. Light micrograph. Hammerschmidtiella eltalaensis sp. nov. 
Male. Scale bars = 100 µm
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Nora Beatriz Camino and Cristina de Villalobos66
terior to metacarpus, the excretory pore is posterior to oe-
sophagus, and the male with one pair preanal papillae, one
pair postanal papillae and one single papilla at the base of the
tail appendage. H. singhi Rao et Rao, 1965 is different by the
nerve ring situated surrounding the corpus anterior located
metacorpus, the caudal papillae comprised of two pairs of pre-
anal, a pair of adanal and unpaired median postanal papillae
situated immediately posterior to the anus at the base of the tail
appendage. 
For all these reasons we consider Hammerschmidtiella
eltalaensis as a new species parasitizing cockroach from 
Argentina. 
Acknowledgements. We would like to thank Mrs. Patricia Sarmiento
from the Scanning Electron Microscopy Service (Museo de Ciencias
Naturales, La Plata Argentina) for preparation of the material. Many
thanks also to two anonymous reviewers for the constructive com-
ments on the manuscript.
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A new species of Hammerschmidtiella Chitwood, 1932 (Nematoda, Thelastomatidae) parasite of the brown cockroach Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister, 1838 (Blattodea, Blattidae) from Argentina

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A new species of Hammerschmidtiella Chitwood, 1932 (Nematoda, Thelastomatidae) parasite of the brown cockroach Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister, 1838 (Blattodea, Blattidae) from Argentina

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