Horizontal transmission of Amblyospora albifasciati García and Becnel, 1994 (Microsporidia: Amblyosporidae), to a copepod intermediate host and the neotropical mosquito Aedes albifasciatus (Macquart, 1837).

MICIELI, MARIA VICTORIA; GARCÍA, JUAN JOSE; BECNEL, JAMES J.

JOURNAL OF INVERTEBRATE PATHOLOGY

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE

Año: 2000 vol. 75 p. 76 - 83

0022-2011

The life cycle of Amblyospora albifasciati is characterized by three sporulation sequences involving the definitive mosquito host and a copepod intermediate host. Meiospores of A. albifasciati were infectious per os to adult females of the copepod Mesocyclops annulatus. All developmental stages in the copepod had unpaired nuclei, with sporulation involving the formation of a sporontogenic interfacial envelope and the production of a second type of uninucleate spore. These spores, formed in the ovaries of M. annulatus, were large, pyriform, and measured 10.4 x 4.8 microm. They infected Aedes albifasciatus larvae when ingested to initiate a sequence that involves schizogony and gametogony and ends with plasmogamy and nuclear association to form diplokaryotic meronts. Oval binucleate spores (9.3 x 3.1 microm) are formed in the adult mosquito and are responsible for vertical transmission to the filial generation.