''Selenidioides'' are a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
parasitic
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 ha ...
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 ...
. Species in this genus infect marine invertebrates.
Taxonomy
The order Archigregarinorida was redefined by Levine in 1971.
[Levine N D (1971) Taxonomy of the Archigregarinorida and Selenidiidae (Protozoa, Apicomplexa) J Euk Micro 18 (4) 704-717 DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.1971.tb03401.x] This reorganisation lead to the creation of two new families (
Exoschizonidae and
Selenidioididae) and several genera including ''Selenidioides''.
There are 11 species in this genus.
Life cycle
The parasites in the genus infect the gastrointestinal tract and are presumably transmitted by the orofaecal route but the details of this mechanism are presently unknown.
References
Apicomplexa genera
{{Apicomplexa-stub