Porosporidae is a family of parasitic alveolates of the

phylum In biology, a phylum (; plural: phyla) is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature f ...

Apicomplexia The Apicomplexa (also called Apicomplexia) are a large phylum of parasitic Alveolata, 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 stru ...

Taxonomy

This family has 3 genera - '' Pachyporospora'', '' Porospora'' and '' Nematopsis'' - and 37 species. The members of this family are distinguished from the other septate gregarines by having a digenic (two host) life cycle.

History

This taxon was created in 1899 by Labbé.Labbé A (1899) Sporozoa. In Das Tierreich: Eine Zusammenstellung und Kennzeichnung der rezenten Tierformen, Schulze, F. E. & Bütschli, O. (eds.). R. Friedländer und Sohn, Berlin: Germany

Description

The species in this family are

heteroxenous Heteroxeny, or heteroxenous development, characterizes a parasite whose development involves several host species. Heteroxeny has been used as the basis for splitting genera. When there are two or three hosts, the development cycle is named di ...

, meaning they live in two separate hosts during their life cycle. The two host species involved in their life cycle are a crustacean and a mollusc. The life cycle involves vegetative development in digestive tract of a decapod crustacean and sporogony in the connective tissue of a lamellibranch mollusc.

References

Apicomplexa families {{Apicomplexa-stub