Steinina diaperis Foerster, 1938

Nazimov, Serhii, 2024, Gregarines of mass species of darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) of Ukraine, Ecologica Montenegrina 73, pp. 26-38 : 29

Steinina diaperis Foerster, 1938 ( Fig. 1 )

Hosts: Diaperis boleti (L., 1758).

Habitat: intestine.

Description: Epimerite short, mobile in young trophozoites, and later flattened. The protomerite is conical. The ratio of the protomerite length to the total length of the gamete is approximately 1:6. The deutomerite is ellipsoidal, the nucleus is spherical and contains one large karyosome. Morphological traits of gamonts are presented in Table 2.

Extensiveness and intensity of infestation: The average extensiveness of D. boleti infestation by this species of gregarine was 20.2%. The maximum total number of gregarine gamonts of this species in the body of one individual D. boleti was 11.

Literature records: The description of gregarines of this species and their life cycle is provided by Foerster (1938). This species is recorded in only one species of black-bodied damselfly, namely Diaperis boleti .

General distribution: Poland ( Foerster 1938; Ormières 1966), Germany ( Geus 1969).

Figures

Figure 1. Gregarine individuals found in the gastrointestinal tract of darkling beetles mass in the Steppe Dnipro region: a. gamont of Stylocephalus gigas; b. mature gamonts of Gregarina ormierei in association; c. solitary trophozoite of Gregarina ormierei; d. mature gamonts of G. ovoidea in association; e. gamont of Steinina diaperis; f. gamont of Sphaerorhynchus cf. hamoni; g. gamont of S. oblongatus; h. gamont of S. longicollis.