HAEMOPROTEUS (APICOMPLEXA, HAEMOPROTEIDAE) OF TORTOISES AND TURTLES

It is the general opinion that the haemoproteid blood parasites of che lonians belong to the genus Haemoproteus. Different specific names hav e long been assigned to this parasite in birds, but some past authorit ies have accepted only a single species, H. metchnikovi, for all those haemoproteids recorded in a wide range of chelonian genera throughout the world. In the present study a comparison of one such organism in the tortoise Geochelone denticulata with another in the river turtle P eltocephalus dumerilianus, from Amazonian Brazil, has revealed clear m orphological differences. These distinguish the parasites from each ot her, H. metchnikovi and the other named species of chelonian Haemoprot eus for which adequate descriptions are available. We have assigned to them the names Haemoproteus geochelonis n.sp. and Haemoproteus peltoc ephali n.sp.