400 



ON SOME H^MOGREGARINES FROM AUSTRALIAN 



REPTILES. 



By T. Harvey Johnston, IVE.A., B.Sc, Assistant Government 

 Microbiologist. 



(From the Bureau of Microbiology, Sydney.) 



(Plates xxxiv.-xxxv.) 



Australian H?emoprotozoa have been quite neglected uniil 

 very recently. To this group there belong a number of families, 

 to one of which, the Hcemog regarinidce, the organisms described 

 in the present paper refer. These are from reptiles, chiefly 

 snakes. 



The H(Bmogregarinid(fi constitute a family belonging to the 

 Sporozoa, and the main characters, as given by L. W. SaQibon,(l) 

 are the possession of a definite form which is generally club-like, 

 the wider end being regarded as anterior; the complete absence 

 of black pigment; and the presence of a capsule, except in very 

 young stages. The adult parasite commonly becomes somewhat 

 bent on itself by the growing round of the posterior narrower 

 end in such a way that it comes to lie against the main part of 

 the organism. 



The absence of pigment, and the presence of a definite form 

 enclosed in a capsule, allow of the ready separation of hseinoi^re- 

 garines from species belonging to other haemoprotozoan genera 

 such as Babesia (Piroplasma), Ilalteridium, Hcemocystidium, and 

 Plasinodium, including their very numerous synonyms such as 

 Proteosoma, etc. 



The »enus LeucocytozootL is now regarded as a synonym of 

 Hcemogregarina, since, in some hosts, the same kind of parasite 

 may occur in the leucocytes as well as in the erythrocytes {e.g., 

 Hcemogregarina colubri Borner, and H. rarefaciens Samb. & 



