-65- 



Flagel lates. Small, rounded, highly motile flagellates were 

 found swimming free in the hemocoel of 27 to 60% of the specimens 

 dissected. They were most often seen in the hemocoel of the anterior 

 thoracic region and immediately posterior to the head. They numbered 

 from one to several, but rarely more than 25. Efforts to photograph 

 these tiny parasites were unsuccessful. 



Two females collected in the fall of 1983 contained what appeared 

 to be small thin flagellates in their midguts. The organisms did not 

 move and appeared to be dead. They were stained with Giemsa and 

 mounted on microslides with Euparal, but were unidentifiable. 



An infection of unknown epimastigote-1 ike flagellates was 

 discovered in the midgut of one of the females dissected in the spring 

 of 1982 (Fig. 2-21). Several hundred of these promastigotes were 

 observed freely swimming in the lumen of the gut; some attached to the 

 midgut epithelium by their flagella; others formed rossettes with 

 their flagella directed toward the center much like L mexicana 

 parasites seen in laboratory infections and in cultures in vitro . 

 Their general appearance, however, was not 1 ike Leishmania . The 

 infected fly was unfed when captured and was given a blood meal on the 

 author's forearm. Upon dissection (six days later), the blood meal 

 remnant was evident in the midgut. Midgut contents containing the 

 flagellates were inoculated subcutaneous ly into the foot pad of a 

 hamster. No lesions or other signs of infection developed in either 

 the author or in the hamster. 



Gregarines . Aseptate gregarines, possibly Ascocystis chagasi 

 (Adler and Mayrink), were found in 7-9% of dissected females. Up to 

 five gamonts were observed in the abdominal cavity of some infected 



