Folia Parasitologica

Intraerythrocytic merogony in Haemogregarina koppiensis (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina: Haemogregarinidae)

Nico J. Smit, Angela J. Davies

Folia Parasitologica 52 277-278 (2005)

During October 2003, a specimen of Amblyrhynchotes honckenii (Bloch, 1795) was captured at low tide, with a hand net, in a rock pool at Koppie Alleen, De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa. This fish was heavily parasitized by unidentified gnathiid praniza larvae, caligid copepods identified as Caligus tetrodontis Barnard, 1948, cymothoid isopods identified as Cinusa tetrodontis (Schioedte et Meinert, 1884), and the blood protozoan Haemogregarina koppiensis Smit et Davies, 2001. Giemsa-stained blood smears from this fish revealed new and unusual stages of merogony for H. koppiensis that included small, rounded, likely intraerythrocytic merozoites arranged in circles of eight around the host nucleus. Host cells appeared ghost-like and enlarged compared with normal erythrocytes. Identical merozoites, usually in clusters of up to 16, were also observed free of host cells. The pattern of merogony seen in H. koppiensis is unusual for a fish haemogregarine.

Address for correspondence: N.J. Smit, Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa. Phone: ++27 11 489 2457; Fax: ++27 11 489 2286; E-mail: njs@rau.ac.za