Fig. 3. Proposed life cycle of T. clandestinus and its developmental and morphological features in caiman blood and leeches. Giemsa-stained blood smears showed blood trypomastigotes of experimentally-infected Caiman yacare, and epi- and trypomastigotes found in the gut of one leech of the genus Haementeria sp. collected in the mouth of a wild Cayman yacare captured in the Pantanal wetland of Brazil. The caiman and the leech trypanosomes were molecularly identified as T. clandestinus. (a‾c) epimastigotes; (b) epimastigote dividing by binary fission; (d, g) short trypomastigote; (e,f) long and thin trypomastigotes. Arrow points to the long and thin posterior extremity of very long and slender trypomastigotes. K, kinetoplast; N, nucleus; F, flagellum.

Published as part of Fermino, Bruno R., Paiva, Fernando, Soares, Priscilla, Tavares, Luiz Eduardo R., Viola, Laerte B., Ferreira, Robson C., Botero-Arias, Robinson, de-Paula, CatiáD., Campaner, Marta, Takata, Carmen S.A., Teixeira, Marta M.G. & Camargo, Erney P., 2015, Field and experimental evidence of a new caiman trypanosome species closely phylogenetically related to fish trypanosomes and transmitted by leeches, pp. 368-378 in International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 4 (3) on page 374, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2015.10.005, http://zenodo.org/record/13010471