''Filipodium'' is a genus of

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s 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 ...

. Species in this genus infect marine invertebrates. This genus was described by Hukui in 1939.

Taxonomy

The type species is ''Filipodium ozakai''.

Description

The mucron is broadly funnel-shaped with papillae around its rim. The gamonts are elongate, with longitudinal striations and with many protrusible filaments emerging from beneath the pellicle. The gametocysts have numerous oocysts. The gametes are dissimilar: the male gametes are not flagellated. The oocysts are ellipsoidal or ovoid and have 8 sporozoites.

Life cycle

The species infects sipunculid worms. The parasite infects the gastrointestinal tract and is presumably transmitted by the orofaecal route but the details of this mechanism are presently unknown.

Host record

*''F. ozakii'' — '' Siphonosoma kumanense''

References

Apicomplexa genera {{Apicomplexa-stub