A puzzling finding: the Brazilian tomato parasite Phytomonas serpens in the western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis in Crimea
Journal: Protistology
Year: 2022

The trypanosomatid flagellates of the genus Phytomonas were found in the salivary glands and gut of the invasive western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis (Hemiptera, Coreidae) in Crimea. The parasites were isolated into axenic culture and identified by phylogenetic analysis based on the 18S rRNA and gGAPDH genes as P. serpens. Previously, all isolates of this species have been obtained in Brazil, from either tomato fruits or their pest bugs Phthia picta (Hemiptera, Coreidae). We invest