Studies on the Fine Structure of Gregarines : Observation on Ferraria cornucephala iwamusi

F. cornucephala iwamusi was reported by H.Hoshide from Marphysa sanguinea (Montagu) of Japan. The host belongs to Polychaeta and distributes commonly around the coast of Setouchi area. The material used in this study was collected at the sandy beach of Aio in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Most of the hosts were parasitized with numerous F.cornucephala iwamusi in the digestive tract. The digestive tract was removed from the host and cut open with fine needles in a petridish filled with sea water. Many of the sporadins were released into the water and they were gathered with a fine pipette. For prefixation they were fixed in cold 5％ glutar aldehyde (pH.7.4, 0.1M cacodylate buffer)for 1.5 hours. The specimens were rinsed in buffer,transferred to cold 1％ osmium tetraoxide solution buffered with cacodylate for 1 hour, dehydrated in an alcohol series and propylen oxide and embedded in Epon 812. The thin section was made with a Porter-Blum MT-1 microtome and examined with JEM 5HS electron microscope. The thickness of the specimens was 0.5-1μ for the light microscope and 150-100mμ for the electron microscope.