Hemolivia mauritanica (Haemogregarinidae: Apicomplexa) infection in the tortoise Testudo graeca in the Near East with data on sporogonous development in the tick vector Hyalomna aegyptium

Abstract

Testudo graeca tortoises were collected in the northern and southern Golan Heights (Israeli occupied territory of south Syria), and various locations in Israel and Palestine. Hyalomma aegyptium ticks were found only on Golan Height tortoises, and only the tortoises and ticks from the northern Golan Heights were infected with Hemolivia mauritanica. Tortoises became infected after ingesting infected ticks. Male ticks carrying sporocysts, which remain attached to tortoises for extended durations, apparently served as the source for dissemination of new infections among tortoises. Sporogenesis followed the pattern observed in the two other known species of Hemolivia, though there was some evident variation in fine-structural detail. The sutural slit detected in the H. mauritanica mature sporocyst wall was reminiscent of the suture characteristic of Coccidia of heterothermic vertebrate hosts; it could be a common ancestral character for both hemogregarines and Coccidia.

Keywords

• Hemolivia mauritanica
• Hyalomma aegyptium
• Testudo graeca
• Near-East distribution
• sporogenesis
• ultrastructure