Gonocephalum pusillum (Fabricius, 1791)

Nazimov, Serhii, 2024, Gregarines of mass species of darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) of Ukraine, Ecologica Montenegrina 73, pp. 26-38 : 31

Hosts: Gonocephalum pusillum (Fabricius, 1791) .

Habitat: intestine.

Description: Gamont is biassociative. The total length can reach more than 1200 µm. The shape of protomerite resembles a slightly flattened ellipse. Deutomerite is long, cylindrical, and rounded at the end. The nucleus is spherical and contains a single caryosome. Morphological traits of gamonts are presented in Table 2.

Extensiveness and intensity of infestation: The average extensiveness of G. pusillum infestation by this species of gregarine was 19.3%. The maximum total number of gregarine gamonts of this species in the body of one individual G. pusillum was 9.

Literature records: The morphological features of this species are described in detail by Théodoridès (1955a, 1958), Tuzet and Ormières (1956). The species is recorded in Gonocephalum rusticum , G. controversum , G. prolixum , G. simplex , G. moluccanum , G. patruele , Mesomorphus setosus , Tentyria taurica and Taraxides laevigatus .

General distribution: France ( Théodoridès 1955a; Tuzet & Ormieres 1956), Turkey ( Théodoridès 1958), Ethiopia ( Théodoridès et al. 1964), Sudan ( Théodoridès et al. 1965), Gabon ( Théodoridès et al. 1976), Cabo Verde ( Théodoridès & Jolivet 1987).