Coccospora Wallroth 1833

Genus description emended by BylÚn and Larsson, 1994,a. The type species is C. micrococcus (LÚger and Hesse, 1921) Kudo, 1925 in adipose tissue of larvae of Tanypus setiger (Diptera, Chironomidae). The emended diagnosis is based on presumably the same species from fat body of larvae of Arctopelopia sp. (Diptera, Chironomidae). Monomorphic, diplokaryotic and monokaryotic during life cycle. Meiosis present. Transmission unknown. Merogony: merogonial plasmodia with diplokaryotic nuclei divide by plasmotomy and by rosette-like budding. Sporogony: the two components of the diplokaryon dissociate and meiosis follows, yielding lobed plasmodia with four nuclei. The plasmodium divides in a rosette-like manner. Sporogony is octosporoblastic, and the sporoblasts are enclosed in a thin-walled, fragile sporophorous vesicle. Spores, 2.5 - 2.7 µm, spherical and uninucleate. The exospore is composed of four different layers, including a double membrane-like layer. Polaroplast has an anterior region of closely packed lamellae and a posterior region of sac-like membrane bound compartments. Polar tube is isofilar, curved, without coils, ending close to or inside the posterior vacuole.