Abstract
The gregarine parasites of mosquitoes may provide fascinating prospects for the destruction of small-container breeding mosquitoes. These parasites are highly host specific and morphologically are very similar to each other. The Ascogregarina spp. have very minute differences in the size of their oocysts, which is very difficult to identify the species by light microscope, although there are some ultrastructural differences. In the recent time, the study of small subunit rDNA proved to be essential for phylogenic study and species identification. There is a big lacuna in the knowledge of nucleotide sequences of Ascogregarina, the key way to identify the species as well.At present three more species of Ascogregarina other than A. taiwanensis, have been detected in Oc. japonicus, Ar. subalbatus, and Ae. togoi from different parts of Japan. Attempts have been made to identify the four species of Ascogregarina e.g. A. taiwanensis, A. culicis, A. armigerei and the Ascogregarina spp. isolated from Oc. Japonicus, on the basis of the differences of their SSU rDNA sequences.
