SPOROZOA 1099 



degeneration forms. Two varieties may be distinguished, one with a 

 dark staining cytoplasm and fine granular melanin, and the other witk 

 light staining, hyaliii cytoplasm and coarse pigment; the former, 

 loaded with reserve food material, is the female or macrogametocyte ; 

 the latter, the male or microgametocyte. The gametes do not develop 

 further until taken into the digestive tract of the insect host. For 

 purposes of study, however, the liiicrogametocytes may be made to 

 exflagellate on the slide, dampened a little by breathing upon it, to 

 stimulate the condition in the insect host. In such a preparation, the 

 flagella, or microgametes, -may be seen actively moving inside the cell 

 body, whose wall they ultimately rupture, and all, four to eight, escape 

 and whip about until they come in contact with a macrogametocyte, 

 when one microgramete enters through the micropyle and finally fuses 

 with the female nucleus. 



Hemoproteus columbae (Halteridium). This parasite of the red 

 blood cells of doves was described in 1891 by Celli and Sanfelice. 

 It is widely distributed in nature and has been reported from 

 Europe, Asia and North and South America. The organism is 

 found within the cytoplasm of the erythrocyte; the nucleus, which 

 is not regularly displaced, is surrounded by the growing parasite 

 like a halter, and for this reason it was named halteridium by Labbe. 

 It is sluggishly ameboid and produces an abundance of melanin, and 

 when the blood is drawn the ripe male sporonts, the microgametocytes, 

 rupture easily, liberating the active flagella, or microgametes. Under 

 favorable circumstances the fertilization of the macrogametocyte by 

 the microgametes may be observed on the slide, and it was while work- 

 ing with this parasite that Macallum first followed out the whole 

 process of fertilization in the hemosporidia and gave the proper 

 explanation of the flagellate stage seen in the malarial parasite. 



In the blood of the dove this parasite is usually seen as a large or 

 small crescent, partly encircling the nucleus; the gametes are readily 

 recognized by the usual marks, that is, the female, or macrogametocyte, 

 is rich in reserve material and the stained specimen takes a deep color ; 

 the male, or microgametocyte, being poor in reserve material stored 

 in the cytoplasm, appears relatively pale in stained specimens. 



The invertebrate host of the parasite is Lynchia maura (Bigot), 

 or Lynchia lividocolor, a biting hippoboscid fly of louse-like habits 

 which lives in the nest and in the plumage. The cycle in the fly has 



2 Adie, Helen, Indian Jour. Med. Research, Calcutta, 1915. 



