l86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



lial cells of caeca and midgut. Considerable damage is done to these 

 cells. Seventy-five percent of 52 B. orientaUs harbored the parasite. 



Plistophora periplanetae (Lutz and Splendore) 



Synonymy. — Nosema periplanetae, Pleistophora periplanetae [after 

 Semans, 1943]. Georgevitch (1953) has pointed out that one may find 

 in the malpighian tubules of cockroaches a mixed infection of Micro- 

 sporidia, Haplosporidia, and Mycetozoa, and that some of the dis- 

 crepancies in the earlier literature may be attributed to attempts to 

 combine in one organism disparate stages belonging to different orders. 

 See also comments under Coelosporidium periplanetae, Haplospo- 

 ridium periplanetae, and Peltomyces periplanetae. 



Natural hosts. — Blatta orientaUs, France (Mercier, 1906a; De- 

 baisieux, 1927) ; England (Perrin, 1906, 1906b) ; U.S.S.R. (Zhi- 

 vago, 1909) ; Yugoslavia (Georgevitch, 1925, 1926, 1926a, 1927) ; 

 Germany (Wellmer, 1910, 1911). 



Blattella gcrmanica, France (Leger, 1909; Debaisieux, 1927); 

 U.S.S.R. (Zhivago, 1909). 



Periplaneta americana, Brazil (Lutz and Splendore, 1903). 



This organism lives in the lumen of the malpighian tubules of cock- 

 roaches. The cited authors appear to have been convinced that this 

 organism was a microsporidian. Georgevitch (1927, 1953) described 

 the polar capsule and filament characteristic of this order. 



Plistophora sp. 



Natural host. — Blatta orientaUs, France (Mercier, 1908a) : The 

 organism parasitized the fat body of the cockroach. Mitoses, often 

 abnormal, were induced in the fat cells. Infected cockroaches were 

 easily recognizable by their distended abdomens. The fat body became 

 chalky white and showed through the intersegmental membranes. 



Porter (1930) reported finding an unidentified microsporidian in 

 the fat bodies of Blattella gertnanica and Periplaneta americana col- 

 lected in South Africa. It may or may not have been a species of 

 Plistophora. 



Class CILIATA 



Order HOLOTRICHA 



Family PARAMECIIDAE 



Paramecium sp. 



Natural associate. — Cockroaches, U.S.A., Maryland (Cleveland, 

 1927) : Three of 30 cockroaches collected in the basement of a de- 



