Summary
Three species of microsporidia from a population of winter moths, Operophtera brumata (L.), were examined by light microscopy. Pleistophora operophterae (Canning, 1960) is redescribed. The stages with one or two nuclei which were originally termed presporonts are now interpreted as fragments of disrupted vacuolated sporonts or prematuraly separated sporoblasts. The range of spore numbers within sporophorous vesicles is modified to 4 to c.60, rather than 10 to c.100. This species cannot be retained in the genus Pleistophora Gurley, 1893, redefined by Canning & Nicholas (1980), but ultrastructural studies are required before taxonomic reassignment is attempted.
Nosema operophterae Canning, 1960 is also redescribed. Merogony consists mainly of binary fission of binucleate and tetranucleate stages but large irregular-shaped multinucleate meronts were also present. Ribbon-shaped sporonts with two, four or eight linearly-spaced nuclei give rise, via binucleate segments, to chains of uninucleate sporoblasts. The species is transferred to a new genus Orthosoma n.g. as Orthosoma operophterae (Canning, 1960) since its isolated nuclei and polysporoblastic sporogony are not characteristic of the genus Nosema Nägeli, 1857.
The third species Nosema operophterae Purrini & Skatulla, 1979 is renamed N. wistmansi nom.nov. because the name given by Purrini & Skatulla was preoccupied and is now a synonym of O. operophterae. Details of the developmental stages of N. wistmansi are given, which show that it is typical of the genus Nosema, with nuclei in diplokaryon arrangement and with disporoblastic sporogony.
All species are shown to have stages in the eggs of their hosts, which are thought to play a part in generation to generation transmission.
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References
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Canning, E.U., Wigley, P.J. & Barker, R.J. The taxonomy of three species of microsporidia (Protozoa: Microspora) from an oakwood population of winter moths Operophtera brumata (L.) (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Syst Parasitol 5, 147–159 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00049242
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00049242