''Crithidia brevicula'' is a species of parasitic flagellate protist belonging to the family

Trypanosomatidae Trypanosomatida is a group of kinetoplastid unicellular organisms distinguished by having only a single flagellum. The name is derived from the Greek ''trypano'' (borer) and ''soma'' (body) because of the corkscrew-like motion of some trypanosoma ...

. It is a monoxenous parasite of insects. Other one-host trypanosomatids from

hemipteran Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to ...

and

dipteran Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

insects have been traditionally placed in the same genus or others like ''Wallaceina'', '' Blastocrithidia'', '' Leptomonas'', '' Herpetomonas'', and '' Rhynchoidomonas''. ''Wallaceina'' was characterized by endomastigote morphological forms, whereas epimastigotes and opisthomastigotes were features of the genera ''Blastocrithidia'' and ''Herpetomonas'', respectively. Later comparison and

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

analysis of

18S ribosomal RNA 18S ribosomal RNA (abbreviated 18S rRNA) is a part of the ribosomal RNA in eukaryotes. It is a component of the Eukaryotic small ribosomal subunit (40S) and the cytosolic homologue of both the 12S ribosomal RNA, 12S rRNA in mitochondria and the 1 ...

and glycosomal glyceraldehyde-3-phosphatedehydrogenase sequences of trypanosomatid taxa revealed that ''Wallaceina'' is

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

. Its species have been reassigned either to ''C. brevicula'' (for ''Wallaceina brevicula'', ''W. inconstans'', ''W. vicina'', and ''W. podlipaevi'') or to a newly proposed genus '' Wallacemonas'' (for ''Wallaceina collosoma'', ''W. rigida'', and ''W. raviniae''). The ''Wallaceina'' generic name was a replacement name for ''Proteomonas'' Podlipaev, Frolov et Kolesnikov, 1990 because the latter ''

Proteomonas Geminigeraceae is a family of cryptophytes containing the five genera '' Geminigera'', '' Guillardia'', ''Hanusia'', ''Proteomonas'' and ''Teleaulax''. They are characterised by chloroplasts containing Cr-phycoerythrin 545, and an inner peri ...

'' was already attributed to a

cryptomonad The cryptomonads (or cryptophytes) are a superclass of algae, most of which have plastids. They are traditionally considered a division of algae among phycologists, under the name of Cryptophyta. They are common in freshwater, and also occur ...

. ''Wallaceina'' was a taxonomic patronym honoring the protistologist Franklin G. Wallace, a pioneer in the modern taxonomy of trypanosomatids.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q122069378, from2=Q9370620 Trypanosomatida Parasitic excavates