On a New H^E MO PROTOZOAN. 



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

 Microbiologist; Hon. Zoologist, Australian Museum. 



Contribution from the Government Bureau of Microbiology, 

 Sydney, New South Wales.) 



(Pi. lxxii.) 



The blood parasites of Australian animals have received very 

 little attention as yet. Our only snake haemoprotozoan known 

 is Hcemogreqarina shattocki, 1 described by Messrs. L. W. Sambon 

 and C. G. Seligmann. The host is the Diamond Snake, Python 

 spilotes, Lacep. Blood tilms taken from a close ally, Python 

 amethystimis, Schneider, captured dining a trip to Port Curtis, 

 Queensland, revealed the presence of numerous parasites inhabiting 

 the erythrocytes only. The percentage of infected cells was 1"8. 

 A few corpuscles were infected by two sporozoans (PI. lxxii., fig. 25.) 

 By using Giemsa's stain the organism becomes differentiated from 

 the host and appears bluish whilst the latter stains pinkish. The 

 nuclei of both become deeply stained. I have followed Sambon 

 and Seligmann's terminology and their extended definition of the 

 genus Hiemogregarina. 



The red corpuscles vary in size from twenty p long by 96 p 

 broad to nineteen p by seven p, the variation being mainly due 

 to alteration as a result of making the film. A typical specimen 

 is shown in PI. lxxii ., 6e. 1, 



\T 



No merozoites were present either in the plasma or in the cells. 

 There were plenty of young forms, long, thin, and more or less 

 crescentic in shape, lying within the host. The concavity more 

 usually faced the nucleus of the latter (PI. lxxii., fig. 2, 3). The 

 opposite condition is seen in PI. lxxii., fig. 4, 7. 



The ends of the parasite are nearly alike, though, generally, 

 one is slightly wider ami more rounded than the other. The 

 former is regarded as the anterior end, and the nucleus is often 



1 Sambon & Seligmann — Proc. Zool. Soc, 1907, p. 284. 



