Family NOSEMATIDAE
Plistophora kudoi Sprague and Ramsey
Natural host.—Blatta orientalis, U.S.A., Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky (Sprague and Ramsey, 1941, 1942): Found in the epithelial cells of caeca and midgut. Considerable damage is done to these cells. Seventy-five percent of 52 B. orientalis harbored the parasite.
Plistophora periplanetae (Lutz and Splendore)
Synonymy.—Nosema periplanetae, Pleistophora periplanetae [after Semans, 1943]. Georgévitch (1953) has pointed out that one may find in the malpighian tubules of cockroaches a mixed infection of Microsporidia, Haplosporidia, and Mycetozoa, and that some of the discrepancies in the earlier literature may be attributed to attempts to combine in one organism disparate stages belonging to different orders. See also comments under Coelosporidium periplanetae, Haplosporidium periplanetae, and Peltomyces periplanetae.
Natural hosts.—Blatta orientalis, France (Mercier, 1906a; Debaisieux, 1927); England (Perrin, 1906, 1906b); U.S.S.R. (Zhivago, 1909); Yugoslavia (Georgévitch, 1925, 1926, 1926a, 1927); Germany (Wellmer, 1910, 1911).
Blattella germanica, France (Léger, 1909; Debaisieux, 1927); U.S.S.R. (Zhivago, 1909).
Periplaneta americana, Brazil (Lutz and Splendore, 1903).
This organism lives in the lumen of the malpighian tubules of cockroaches. The cited authors appear to have been convinced that this organism was a microsporidian. Georgévitch (1927, 1953) described the polar capsule and filament characteristic of this order.