Shedding Light on Vampires: The Phylogeny of Vampyrellid Amoebae Revisited

With the advent of molecular phylogenetic techniques the polyphyly of naked filose amoebae has been proven. They are interspersed in several supergroups of eukaryotes and most of them already found their place within the tree of life. Although the ‘vampire amoebae’ have attracted interest since the middle of the 19th century, the phylogenetic position and even the monophyly of this traditional group are still uncertain. In this study clonal co-cultures of eight algivorous vampyrellid amoebae and the respective food algae were established. Culture material was characterized morphologically and a molecular phylogeny was inferred using SSU rDNA sequence comparisons. We found that the limnetic, algivorous vampyrellid amoebae investigated in this study belong to a major clade within the Endomyxa Cavalier-Smith, 2002 (Cercozoa), grouping together with a few soil-dwelling taxa. They split into two robust clades, one containing species of the genus Vampyrella Cienkowski, 1865, the other containing the genus Leptophrys Hertwig & Lesser, 1874, together with terrestrial members. Supported by morphological data these clades are designated as the two families Vampyrellidae Zopf, 1885, and Leptophryidae fam. nov. Furthermore the order Vampyrellida West, 1901 was revised and now corresponds to the major vampyrellid clade within the Endomyxa, comprising the Vampyrellidae and Leptophryidae as well as several environmental sequences. In the light of the presented phylogenetic analyses morphological and ecological aspects, the feeding strategy and nutritional specialization within the vampyrellid amoebae are discussed

Host Decoy Trap (HDT) with cattle odour is highly effective for collection of exophagic malaria vectors

Background: As currently implemented, malaria vector surveillance in sub-Saharan Africa targets endophagic and endophilic mosquitoes, leaving exophagic (outdoor blood feeding) mosquitoes underrepresented. We evaluated the recently developed host decoy trap (HDT) and compared it to the gold standard, human landing catch (HLC), in a 3x3 Latin square study design outdoors in western Kenya. HLCs are considered to represent the natural range of Anopheles biting-behaviour compared to other sampling tools, and therefore, in principle, provide the most reliable profile of the biting population transmitting malaria. The HDT incorporates the main host stimuli that attract blood meal seeking mosquitoes and can be baited with the odours of live hosts. Results: Numbers and species diversity of trapped mosquitoes varied significantly between HLCs and HDTs baited with human (HDT-H) or cattle (HDT-C) odour, revealing important differences in behaviour of Anopheles species. In the main study in Kisian, the HDT-C collected a nightly mean of 43.2 (95% CI; 26.7-69.8) Anopheles, compared to 5.8 (95% CI; 4.1-8.2) in HLC, while HDT-H collected 0.97 (95% CI; 0.4-2.1), significantly fewer than the HLC. Significantly higher proportions of An. arabiensis were caught in HDT-Cs (0.94 ± 0.01; SE) and HDT-Hs (0.76 ± 0.09; SE) than in HLCs (0.45 ± 0.05; SE) per trapping night. The proportion of An. gambiae s.s. was highest in HLC (0.55 ±0.05; SE) followed by HDT-H (0.20 ± 0.09; SE) and least in HDT-C (0.06 ± 0.01; SE). An unbaited HDT placed beside locales where cattle are usually corralled overnight caught mostly An. arabiensis with proportions of 0.97 ± 0.02 and 0.80 ± 0.2 relative to the total anopheline catch in the presence and absence of cattle, respectively. A mean of 10.4 (95% CI; 2.0-55.0) Anopheles/night were trapped near cattle, compared to 0.4 (95% CI; 0.1-1.7) in unbaited HDT away from hosts. Conclusions: The capability of HDTs to combine host odours, heat and visual stimuli to simulate a host provides the basis of a system to sample human- and cattle-biting mosquitoes. HDT-C is particularly effective for collecting An. arabiensis outdoors. The HDT offers the prospect of a system to monitor and potentially control An. arabiensis and other outdoor-biting mosquitoes more effectively