have not been described in sufficient detail to assign them to a species. The Americas are also home to the only known turtle-infecting Dracunculus (also the only species that infects a non-snake reptile), D. globocephalus. First described in 1927 in Oklahoma and Illinois, it is now found in snapping turtles across the United States, as well as the South American snapping turtle in Costa Rica. Africa hosts two known snake-infecting species. Both male and female D. doi were described from Madagascar ground boas in 1960 and 1973 respectively. D. dahomensis has been described only from a captive African rock python. In Australia, the only known snake-infecting Dracunculus is D. mulbus, described from numerous water pythons in Northern Australia in 2007. It has since been described in Papua New Guinea's Papuan olive python as well. Mammal-infecting species Just four Dracunculus species are known to infect mammals, of which the best known is the human parasite D. medinensis. Historically spread across Africa and South Asia, a major eradication effort has restricted D. medinensis to just Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan. Case numbers have similarly fallen, from an estimated 3.5 million per year at the 1986 start of the eradication program, to just 15 in 2021. D. medinensis is now most common in dogs, particularly in Chad, where it may spread via fish or frogs as paratenic hosts. D. insignis infects dogs and wild carnivores, causing cutaneous lesions, ulcers, and sometimes heart and vertebral column lesions. Like D. medinensis, it is also known as Guinea worm, as well as Dragon or Fiery Dragon. The range of D. insignis is limited to North America. D. fuelliborni parasitizes opossum, D. lutrae parasitizes otters, and D. ophidensis parasitizes reptiles. References External links Secernentea genera Parasitic nematodes of mammals