THE RELATION OF HERPETOMONAS ELMASSIANI (MIGONE) TO ITS PLANT AND INSECT HOSTS

Histological studies of the milkweed host of the flagellate Herpetomonas elmassiani (Migone) showed that the organisms were confined to the latex system, in which they were intracellular but not intracytoplasmic. The latex is secreted into the general cell vacuole of the latex duct, and it is in this that the organisms were found. No other cells or parts of cells were found to be penetrated.

During the early part of the summer one or a very few latex cells in a plant were sometimes infected, for in Asclepias the original latex cells of the embryo never fuse. Because of this condition occasional localized infections appeared, in which a few leaves of the infected plant were found to be free from organisms.

The flagellates of Oncopeltus fasciatus (Dall.), a red and black hemipterous insect suspected of being the insect host of H. elmassiani (Migone), were found to inhabit the three-lobed thoracic salivary gland. In the gland these were definitely localized, colonizing only the dorsal and anterior lobes.

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