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Name derivation:
Classification:
Helicosporidium D. Keilin 1921; one species has been described and is currently accepted taxonomically. Order Chlorellales; Family Chlorellaceae.
Morphology:
Vegetative cells (2 – 3 μm diameter are colorless. Spores (6.5 μm diameter) contain three discoid cells surrounded by a helical filamentous cell. When the spore dehisces releasing the cells, the filamentous cell, ~ 35 – 40 μm long and 4 μm in diameter, with a pointed and barbed end, expands its coils and embeds itself in the lining of the midgut of the infected host insect (Boucias et al. 2001)..
Similar genera:
Habitat:
Endoparasite. Helicosporidium parasiticum was found in a dipteran insect (Keilin 1921), and later in several other insects including the black fly Simulium jonesi, lepidopterans e.g. Helicoverpa zea, Galleria mellonella and Manduca sexta, and dipterans Musca domestica, Aedes taeniorhynchus and Anopheles albimanus, and Anopheles quadrimaculatus (Boucias et al. 2001).
References:
Boucias, D.G., J.J. Becnel, S.E. White and M. Bott 2001. In Vivo and In Vitro development of the protist Helicosporidium sp. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 48(4):460-470. Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2016. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 24 February 2016. Keilin, D. 1921. On the life history of Helicosporidium parasiticum n. g. sp., a new species of protist parasite in the larvae of Dashelaea obscura Winn (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) and in some other arthropods. Parasitology 13: 97-113.