| Haemoproteus | |
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| Genus: | Haemocystidium
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Haemocystidium kopki | |
Haemocystidium is a genus of parasitic protozoa belonging to the phylum Apicomplexia.
The genus Haemocystidium was created to give a name to the haemoproteid of a gecko belonging to the genus Hemidactylus in Sri Lanka by Castellani and Willey in 1904. A second species in this genus was described in 1909 by Johnston and Cleland who found pigmented gametocytes in the blood of the Australian tortoise Chelodina longicollis. These species were transfered to Haemoproteus in 1926 by Wenyon.
The genus was resurrected by Garnham in 1966 when he created a new generic name - Simondia - for the haemoproteids of chelonians. He followed the opinions of Wenyon, Hewitt and DeGiusti and suggested that all these parasites belonged to the one species - Simondia metchnikovi. He retained the name Haemocystidium for the haemoproteids of lizards.
A different genus of vectors was identified in 1957 by Fallis and Wood when they identified Haemoproreus nettionis in Culicoides downesi Wirth and Hubert in Ontario, Canada.
Levine and Campbell in 1971 moved all the species in Simondia and Haemocystidium into Haemoproteus an opinion that was followed by subsequent authors.
The genus Haemocystidium was resurrected again by Telford in 1996 when he described three new species of protozoa in geckos from Pakistan.[1]
This genus like those of most protozoa may be further modified once additional DNA sequences are available.
Haemocystidium is distinguished from Plasmodium by the absence of an asexual cycle in circulating blood cells
It is distinguished from Haemoproteus by meronts that do not form as pseudocytomeres.