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Vol. 50 No. 6, 2011
Life Cycle and Morphology of Steinina ctenocephali
(Ross 1909) comb. nov. (Eugregarinorida: Actinocephalidae), a Gregarine
of Ctenocephalides felis (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) in Taiwan
Mauricio E. Alarcón1, Chin-Gi Huang1, Yi-Shang Tsai1, Wei-June Chen2, Anil Kumar Dubey1, and Wen-Jer Wu1,*
1Department of Entomology, National Taiwan Univ., No. 27, Lane 113, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan
2Department
of Public Health and Parasitology, College of Medicine, Chang Gung
Univ., 259 Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kweishan, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Mauricio E. Alarcón, Chin-Gi Huang, Yi-Shang Tsai, Wei-June Chen, Anil Kumar Dubey, and Wen-Jer Wu (2011) Gregarines
are endoparasitizing protozoa found across terrestrial invertebrate
taxa including several insect species of medical and public health
importance such as the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis
(Bouché). The finding of a gregarine infection in the cat flea may shed
light on further pest control regimes of this pest insect species. To
resolve taxonomic concerns (synonyms) and the life history of this cat
flea-infecting gregarine, Gregarina ctenocephali,
the morphology, life cycle, and phylogenetic status of this species in
Taiwan were investigated and described. Virtually all lines of evidence
showed that this gregarine is closely related to the genus Steinina and
only distantly related to the genus Gregarina as described by Ross
(1909) and thus should be transferred from G. ctenocephali to S. ctenocephali comb. nov. Results of this study provide baseline information for evaluation of future biological control practices.
Key words: Cat flea, Gregarine, Gregarina ctenocephali, Life cycle, Morphology.
*Correspondence: Tel: 886-2-33665579. Fax: 886-2-27354655. E-mail:wuwj@ntu.edu.tw
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