The Monocystinae are a subfamily of parasitic alveolates in the phylum

Apicomplexa The Apicomplexa (also called Apicomplexia) are a large phylum of parasitic alveolates. Most of them possess a unique form of organelle that comprises a type of non-photosynthetic plastid called an apicoplast, and an apical complex structure. Th ...

Taxonomy

There are seven genera in this subfamily. The type genus is ''

Monocystis ''Monocystis (Gr., monos, ''single'' + kystisis, ''bladder'')'' is a genus (the type of the family Monocystidae) of acephaline gregarines (subclass Gregarinasina) not having the protoplasm divided into segments by septa and including internal pa ...

''.

History

This subfamily was created by Bütschli in 1882Bütschli O, Schwager C (1882) Protozoa. Abt. 1, Sarkodina und Sporozoa. Leipzig: F. C. Wintersche Verlagshandlung and modified by Bhatia in 1930.Bhatia BL (1930) Synopsis of the genera and classification of haplocyte gregarines. Parasitol 22: 156-167

Description

The species in this subfamily are cylindroid in shape with a mucron at the anterior end. The trophozoites are solitary. Syzygy occurs late in the life cycle. They parasitise the coelom of

earthworm An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. T ...

s and are spread by the orofaecal route.

References

Bikont subfamilies Conoidasida {{Apicomplexa-stub