Crystallospora is a genus of Apicomplexa in the family Aggregatidae.
History The genus Crystallospora was created by Labbé in 1896Labbe A (1896) Recherches Zoologiques, Cytologiques et Biologiques sur les Coccidies. Archives de Zoologie Experimentale et Generale 4: 517-654 for a coccidium that ThelohanThelohan MP (1890) Sur deux coccidies nouvelles, parasites de l'epinoche et de la sardine. C R Hebd Seances Mem Soc BioI (Paris) 42:345-348 had discovered in the Atlantic Ocean off France in 1893. The organism was originally called Coccidium cristalloides but Labbe renamed it Crystallospora thelohani.
This species was later transferred to Eimeria by Doflein in 1909.Doflein F (1909) Lehrbuch der Protozoenkune ein Darstellung der Naturgeschichte der Protozoen mit Besonderer Berucksichtigung der Parasitischen und Pathogenen Formen. II. Auflage der Protozoen als Parasiten und Krankheitserreger. Verlag von Gustav Fischer, Jena. 914
In 1948 Dogel found the same species in Peter the Great Gulf (Pacific Ocean) off Japan.Dogiel VA (1948) Parasitic protozoa of fishes from Peter the Great Bay. Izvestiya Vsesoyuznogo Nauchno-Issledovatelskogo Instituto Ozernogo i Rechnogo Rybnogo Khozyaistva 27: 17-66
Dyková and Lom in 1981 revived this genus because of its unique sporocyst structure.Dykova I, Lom J (1981) Fish coccidia: critical notes on life cycles, classification and pathogenicity. Journal of Fish Diseases 4: 487-505
Taxonomy
There is one species in this genus.
Description
The sporocysts have four sporocysts each with two sporozoites. They are dodecahedral in shape and are composed of two hexagonal, pyramidal valves joined at their bases by a suture.
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