The tick-transmitted haemogregarinid of the australian sleepy lizard

Nymphae of Amblyomma limbatum Neumann, engorged on the Australian sleepy lizard Tiliqua rugosa Gray infected with haemogregarine blood-stage gametocytes, were studied by light and electron microscope 3-57 days after detachment. Examined ticks demonstrated haemogregarine oocysts and sporogonic stages. Oocysts found in the intestinal epithelium, were three to five arm star-shaped, and divided into numerous sporokinetes. The sporokinetes spread to various tissues and, after transforming into hard-walled sporocysts, divided into sporozoites. This course of development in the vector is characteristic of the genus Hemolivia Petit, Landau, Baccam & Lainson, 1990 reported earlier from toads and ticks. The reported haemogregarinid is therefore described as Hemolivia mariae n. sp