EUROPEAN HARE AND EUROPEAN RABBIT (LAGOMORPHA) AS INTERMEDIATE HOSTS OF SARCOCYSTIS SPECIES (SPOROZOA) IN CENTRAL-EUROPE

Sarcocystis cuniculi Brumpt, 1913 was found in Oryctolagus cuniculus f rom Berlin. This species shows striking features of the cyst wall alre ady under light microscope: the surface is covered by tightly packed s lim-looking finger-like villar protrusions. The ultrastructure of the cyst wall is characteristic: intermediate between the types 9 and 10 o f the classification by Dubey et al. (1989)(Figs. 1-4). Here the cross -sections of the finger-like villar protrusions are irregularly polygo nal. No Sarcocystis species has been described in detail and recogniza bly from Lepus europaeus. We found four different species in European hare from Poland. The first (Figs. 5-8) strongly resembles S. cuniculi . An ultrastructural feature differs, however: the round outline of th e cross-section of the finger-like villar protrusions. Therefore we st ate this species as S. cf. cuniculi for the present. The second specie s from hare (Figs. 9-12) is listed here as ''Sarcocystis sp. 1''. It i s characterized by hair-like villar protrusions of the cyst wall as kn own of one respective species from roe deer, cattle, sheep, goat and h orse (type 7 of the classification by Dubey et al. 1989). We designate the third species from hare (Figs. 13-16) as ''Sarcocystis sp. 2''. I t shows an ultrastructure of the cyst wall hitherto not yet described, which bears a remote resemblance to the type 21 of the classification by Dubey et al. (1989). The fourth species from hare (Figs. 17-20) is morphologically not discernible from a species hitherto known from eq uids only, especially on the basis of TEM micrographs of the cyst wall (type 11 of the classification by Dubey et al. 1989). Therefore, we l ist it as Sarcocystis cf. bertrami Doflein, 1901 (= equicanis = fayeri ).