Notes on the Gregarines in Japan 12, A new species of Eugregarine, Gregarina hirakawaensis n. sp. From Homidia sauteri Borner

A new species of gregarine from Collembora is described in this paper. Various species of insects are known to be parasitized with various species of gregarines but the systematic relation among gregarines and the systematic relation between host insects and gregarines have not known yet.To elucidate these problems more information about the gregarines parasitizing various insects is necessary but the information of gregarines parasitizing Apterygota is especially insufficient.To think about systematic relation of insects, Apterygota is an important group,because Apterygota is a primitive group of insects which keep lots of primitive characters. In Europe the parasitism of gregarines in Apterygota has been known since old times and several species of gregarines have been described. 0n the contrary in Japan a gregarine from Thysanura by H. Hoshide is the only species identified from Apterygota. Besides parasitism of Gregarina sp. From Collembora,Tomocerus minutes Tullberg, was reported by Chiba et al in 1966 but the species of Gregarine was not identified at that time.So this gregarine is the first species of gregarine identified from Japanese Collembola.