Macroenvironmental influence on Hepatozoon lacertilis infectivity to lizard Hemidactylus flaviviridis.

Abstract

Hemidactylus flaviviridis Ruppell, 1835 (n= 199) sampled during different seasons from Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh, India) were infected with a sporozoan parasite belonging to the genus Hepatozoon Miller, 1908. Four morphovariants of the parasite, Type I, II, III and IV were identified on their growing pattern. When compared with earlier reported species, the parasite could be characterized taxonomically by its comparatively greater length 17.35 (13.57-21.30) microm and width 7.51 (5.59-10.11) microm, unusual larger size of parasite nuclear length 8.86 (4.75-15.83) microm and width 3.55 (2.14-5.11) microm and cytomorphological differences. These characteristics warrant creation of a new species and was named Hepatozoon lacertilis sp. nov. The morpho-variants, their effect on hostcell and host nuclei are clearly illustrated. The influence of macroenvironmental factor (host sex) on parasitic infectivity indicated that it was 7.14% prevalant in male and 6.25% in female Hemidactylus flaviviridis.