Description of Vavraia

Monomorphic, monokaryotic throughout life cycle; transmission is per os by larvae; merogony - multinucleate plasmodia with an external coat of amorphous material on the plasma membrane; division, by plasmotomy and possibly also by multiple fission, includes fission of the amorphous coat; sporogony - multinucleate plasmodia withdraw within the amorphous coat, which becomes a sporophorous vesicle; after secretion of the electron dense surface coat on the sporogonial plasmodium, division into uninucleate sporoblasts occurs by multiple fission in rosette formation; number of sporoblasts is commonly a multiple of 8, up to 64; spores, 4.0 x 2.5 µm, elongate ovoid and uninucleate; exospore is thin, endspore thick; polaroplast is lamellar with anterior closely packed lamellae and posterior more widely spaced lamellae; polar tube is isofilar, with about 15 coils; type species V. culicis (Weiser, 1947) Weiser, 1977, in Malpighian tubules and other tissues of larvae and adults of Culex pipiens and other culicine and anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae).