The number of species of rodent coccidia and of other protozoa.
About 447 species of coccidia have been named from the 1687 living, known species of rodents; 207 host species, 92 host genera, and 15 host families are represented; this is about 12% of the known species of rodents. About 4600 species of apicomplexan protozoa have been named. Assuming that the same proportion of the total number of apicomplexan species has been named as of the coccidian species, there must actually be about 38,333 species of apicomplexan protozoa. There are 5.4 times as many protozoan genera as of apicomplexan genera. Assuming that the number of species in each genus is the same for all the protozoa as it is for the Apicomplexa, there may actually be 206,998 species of protozoa. This may be too conservative an estimate. Based on other criteria, an estimate of over 20 million species could be made.
Levine
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ND
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801.
D000818:Animals; D003044:Coccidia / Q000145:classification*; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000145:classification*; D011528:Protozoan Infections / Q000469:parasitology; D011529:Protozoan Infections, Animal; D012376:Rodent Diseases / Q000469:parasitology; D012377:Rodentia / Q000469:parasitology*; D013045:Species Specificity