194 ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [404 



UNCERTAIN SPECIES IN THE GENUS GEEGARINA 



GREGARINA ELATERAE Crawley 



[Figure 158] 



1903 Gregarina elaterae Crawley 1903 :46 



Sporonts not seen. Crawley's description is based evidently on the 

 cephalonts and a species can hardly be assigned to material containing no 

 mature specimens for the cephalonts of many of the Gregarinidae are 

 identical. Crawley 's description is in part as follows : 



"Epimerite spherical, protomerite elliptical, long axis perperdicular to that 

 of deutomerite, sharp constriction at septum. Deutomerite oval to subspherical. 

 Endocyte characteristic of cephalonts, sparse and granular. Max. length 62^. 

 Host Elater sp, larva. Taken at Wyncote, Pa." 



The species is probably a member of the genus Gregarina from the 

 epimerite, but it cannot stand as absolute. Subsequent discovery of the 

 sporonts probably cannot be correlated with the cephalonts here described 

 owing to a similarity of the cephalonts of so many species. 



GREGARINA CURVATA (Frantzius) Diesing 



The following and only description of the species available is quoted 

 from Diesing: 



"Proboscis ? . Receptaculum rotundatum. Corpus elongatum retrorsum 

 attenuatum curvatum, receptaculo sexies longius. Longit. %-H" '•" 



Host: Cetonia aurata larv. Habitat: Intestine. 



Frantzius merely names the species, giving neither drawing nor 

 description. Diesing gives no clue as to whether the species is biasso- 

 ciative or not. Lankester places it in the genus Gregarina, which he 

 characterizes by the phrase "two animals frequently hanging together" 

 giving no description. The species has not since been mentioned in the 

 literature, and in lieu of complete data, it is placed in the group of 

 doubtful species under the genus Gregariaa. 



