Apicomplexa

Kundu, Beauty & Bandyopadhyay, Probir K., 2019, A checklist of protozoan parasite belonging to the genus Apolocystis Cognetii de Martiis, 1923 (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinida: Monocystidae) recorded from oligochaete hosts, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 119 (4) : -

Phylum Apicomplexa are a large and diverse group of parasites under the subkingdom Protozoa. Most of them possess a unique form of organelle that comprises a type of plastid called an apicoplast and an apical complex structure. The order Eugregarinida Léger, 1900 belonging to the phylum Apicomplexa represents interesting group gregarines. Levine in 1988 included the gregarine groups to the phylum Apicomlpexa. The gregarine parasites inhabit the intestine, coelom and reproductive organ of invertebrates. Gregarines are the earliest lineage of apicomplexan animals and separated from coccidians, haemosporidians and piroplasms.

Gregarines group represent mainly two forms aseptate and septate. Approximately, 250 genera and 1650 species of aseptate gregarines have so far been described ( Levine, 1976, 1977 and 1988; Clopton, 2000; Hausmann et al., 2003). The aseptate gregarine trophozoites contain one compartment, but the septate gregarines bear septum. Aseptate form harbours mainly in oligochaete host. Septate form mainly infects Arthropods and Mollusc.

The genus Apolocystis was erected by Cognetii de Martiis in 1923, having solitary, spherical gamonts without principle axis and biconical oocyst. Later on, many scientists worked on the genus Apolocystis and documented forty one species, (Cognetii de Martiis, 1923; Troisi, 1933; Philips and Mackinnon, 1946; Tuzet and Loubatieres, 1946; Loubatieres, 1955; Berlin, 1924; Meier, 1956; Tuzet and Zuber-Vogeli,1955; Tuzet and Vogeli, 1956; Meier, 1956; Rees, 1963; Bereczky, 1967; Ramadan 1969; Segun, 1971 and 1978; Frolov, 1991; Loubatieres, 1995; Gullo Armeendariz, 2002; Ramadan et al., 2014, 2015 and Ali et al., 2018) out of which only seven species have so far been reported from india ( Pradhan and Dasgupta, 1983; Bhatia and Setna, 1926; Bandyopadhyay et al., 2004; Bhowmik et al., 2012). In view of this it has become necessary to establish an updated checklist of different Apolocystis species. The checklist is presented below including type host, type locality and site of infection in Table 1.

Summary

In this communication, forty-one species belonging to the genus Apolocystis Cognetii de Martiis, 1923 have been consolidated. All these aseptate gregarine fauna have been documented from different oligochaete hosts of various geographical distributions, including the site of infections. This communication will enlighten on the taxonomic studies and evolution of the genus Apolocystis .

Acknowledgement

One of the authors (BK) is thankful to the University of Kalyani, Kalyani for providing research scholarship to carry out the work.