The foregoing study on pages 128-135 was submitted in September 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njpar.v38i1.24  Parasitology and Public Health Society of Nigeria, 2017. Nigerian Journal of Parasitology ISSN 1117 4145 Volume 38[1] March 2017 Anuran parasites from three biotopes in Rivers State, Nigeria Aisien, M. S. O., 1* Omereji, A. B. 2 and Ugbomeh, A. P. 2 1 Laboratory of Parasitology Research, Department of Animal and Environmental Biology Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, P.M.B. 1154, Benin City, Nigeria 2 Department of Applied and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Rivers State University of Science and Technology Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria email: aisien@uniben.edu Abstract The parasitic infections of anurans from three biotopes (lowland forest, freshwater swamp and brackish water swamp) in Rivers State, Nigeria were investigated. A total of 94 anuran specimens were examined; 32 from the lowland forest, 28 from the freshwater swamp and 34 from the brackish water environment. Of the three biotopes, amphibians from the lowland forest harboured more parasite species. In total, 24 parasite species were recovered, including a pentastomid; larval acanthocephala; one cestode; one monogenean; sevendigeneans and thirteen nematode species. Only five of the 24 parasite species recovered were common to anurans from the three biotopes. Others were either restricted to one ecological habitat or were also found in hosts from a second habitat. A form of association seems to exist between ciliates and the Cephalochlamys compactus recovered from Hoplobatrachus occipitalis collected from the lowland forest. Hymenochirus sp. is a new host record for Progonimodiscus colubrifer, having been previously described from Silurana tropicalis. Aplectana mackintoschi is both a new geographical record for Nigeria and a multi-host parasite. We suspect Hyperolius concolor to be a paratenic rather than a definitive host for the immature Camallanus sp. recovered from the frog. Other parasites using anurans as paratenic hosts were also encountered. Keywords : Anurans, parasites, ecological biotopes, Rivers State, Nigeria. Introduction Investigations on the parasitic infections of amphibians in Nigeria have been conducted in the different ecological biotopes (the rainforest, freshwater and brackish water swamps, transitional forest and derived savannah) in southern Nigeria [1-10] and the Guinea savannah in the north [11, 12]. These studies have revealed the array of parasites infecting anurans in Nigeria, leading to the re-description of Polystoma africanum, a monogenean previously reported from other African countries [13] and the description of Polystom aokomuensis, a new species parasitizing Boulenger’s stripped frog, Phylictimantis boulengeri [14]. Although the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is rich in amphibian diversity [15, 16], investigations into the parasitic infections of amphibians from this region has been rather limited [3, 17]. Rivers State lies in this region and the ecological habitats represented in the State include lowland rainforest, freshwater and brackish water swamps. Till date, only one paper has been published on the amphibian parasites of the State [18]. Although the paper did an excellent analysis on the helminth community structure and diet of the three anurans species studied, the identities assigned to the parasites found were doubtful. There is therefore the need to properly investigate and accurately identify the parasites of anurans from the State. Consequently, we investigated the parasitic infections of anurans collected from locations in the three ecological biotopes of the State, which we present in this paper.