Description of Pentatrichomonoides
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Flagellates (18-45 µm) with five free anterior flagella and a recurrent one incorporated into a well-developed undulating membrane, no free posterior recurrent flagellum. Cell shape changeable; cigar-shaped and truncated posteriorly or broadly triangular. Costa rather slender; costa and undulating membrane larger than the body, often recurved posteriorly. No central axostyle; parabasal of variable shape associated with a parabasal filament. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy has shown the trichomonad characters. Flagella arise from a gullet; the recurrent flagellum is associated with a prominent lamellar UM and a paraaxononemal fibre. The microtubules of the axostyle develop under the plasma membrane all around the cell except at the UM. The UM is bordered by two deep grooves and is underlain by a costa of B-type pattern. P. scroa, has been described from several species of termites in the genus Cryptotermes (Kirby, 1931; GrassÃ, 1952a) and P. darwiniensis has been described from Mastotermes darwiniensis. Diagnosis by Honigberg (1963) and Kirby (1931); electron microscopy by Brugerolle et al. (1994). Type species: Pentatrichomonoides scroa Kirby, 1931.
