Ultrastructural study of Pentatrichomonoides sp., a trichomonad flagellate from Mastotermes darwiniensis

The features of one trichomonad flagellate found in Mastotermes correspond to that of Pentatrichomonoides Kirby. The 5 basal bodies of the anterior flagella are arranged like in other trichomonads and particularly like in Hexamastix. The herring bone striation pattern of the costa and the lamellar shape of the UM are very closely related to those of the genus Trichomitopsis and, more generally said, to the Trichomonadinae genera: Trichomonas, Tetratrichomonas and Pentatrichomonas. A significant modification concerns the microtubules of the axostyle which do not form an axial hollow tube but a row of microtubules underlying the plasma membrane except in the UM region which is the endocytotic area for the cell. Also the preaxostylar fibres subdivide into thin lamellae never seen in a trichomonad.