66 ILLINOIS BIOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS [276 



STENOPHORA SILENE Leger and Duboscq 



[Figures 22 and 23] 

 1904 Stenophora silene Leger and Duboscq 1904 :371-2 



Stenophora: Sporonts solitary, dimorphic, an elongate and a glo- 

 bular form. The elongate form lOO/* in maximum length, width not 

 given. Ratio length protomerite : total length : : : 1 : 10 ; width proto- 

 merite : width deutomerite : : 1 : 1. Protomerite cylindrical, slightly 

 dilated top and bottom, nearly flattened at top, an apparent pore at apex. 

 Constriction at septum. Deutomerite cylindrical, gradually tapering 

 toward posterior end. Endoeyte of protomerite with large achromatic 

 bodies, of deutomerite very finely granular and deeply staining. Nu- 

 cleus large, half the maximum width of deutomerite, ovoidal, its longi- 

 tudinal axis parallel to that of body, containing one large karyosome. 



The globose form, 55 to 60//, in maximum length. Width not given. 

 Ratio length protomerite : total length : : 1 : 6 ; width protomerite : 

 width deutomerite : : 1 : 2.3. Protomerite similar to that of elongate 

 form, but containing finely granular endoplasm as deeply staining as 

 that of deutomerite. Deutomerite broadly ovoidal, widest below center. 

 Nucleus less ellipsoidal than in elongate form. Cyst and sports not 

 known. 



Taken in Dauphine, France. Host: Lysiopetalum foetidissimum 

 Savi. Habitat : Intestine. 



"Howard Crawley (1903) a signale dans Lysiopetalum lactarium des Etas- 

 Unis deux especes de Gregarines : 1'une qu'il nomme Gregarina calverti dont la 

 forme generale et la taille sont si differentes de celles de la precedente que Ton 

 ne peut etablir de confusion ; 1'autre espece est rapportee au Stenophora iuli. II 

 est possible que celle-ci soit identique a notre Stenophora silene, mais on ne peut 

 1'affirmer, car Crawley ne donne pas de dimensions de son Stenophora." 



Stenophora silene is not the species described by Crawley (1903 :51 ; 

 1903a:634-5) as Stenophora juli. Crawley 's species attains a length of 

 400/*, 8. silene of only 100/*. The protomerite of S. juli is broadly 

 conical, 1.4 times as wide as high; of S. silene cylindrical, flattened at 

 the apical end. Crawley 's Gregarina calverti is still another species, 

 now called Amphoroides calverti. 



Whether or not there is an actual dimorphism in the Stenophoridae 

 is a problem still far from settled. The finding of elongate and globose 

 forms in the same species and the difference in staining reactions can, 

 I think, hardly be considered sexual dimorphism unless the two spo- 

 ronts are of somewhere nearly the same size. In 8. silene, the difference 

 in length of the two is 100%. The difference in lengths of the elongate 



