portrait

Description:

Holomastigotes are spirotrichonymphids with flagellar rows originating from the apex and progressing helically covering the whole cell body. In a species the size and the number of flagellar rows are variable. Nucleus very anterior, no columella. Dictyosomes scattered along the flagellar rows or concentrated at the posteriror of the nucleus. Axostyle present in some species. Cytoplasm filled with spherical food vacuoles, no wood particles, pinocytic nutrition. Holomastigotes elongatum Grassi, 1892, large form with five or six flagellar rows, flagella adherent to the cell body in their proximal part, anterior nucleus (two focal planes, interferential contrast). This species occurs in Reticulitermes lucifugus grassei, R. flavipes or its synonym R. santonensis, and Hodotermopsis sjoestedti.