Trypanosomatids in the supralittoral zone
          
         
The supralittoral zone of the Tshupa bay (left photo) represents a unique biotope populated by two heteropteran bug species: a larger Salda littoralis and a smaller Saldula pallipes (fam. Saldidae). No other Heteroptera are found in this biotope and these two species do not occur anywhere else in that region. The insects can be found during the low tide under the layer of stranded fucoid algae - on the right photo Sergei Podlipaev is shown collecting the bugs. During the high tide the bugs migrate to the edge of water.
   
       
Left: Saldula pallipes (smaller) and Salda littoralis (larger). Right: S. pallipes in the natural environment.
    
     
Culture forms of Leptomonas sp. PL from Salda littoralis (left photo) and Leptomonas sp. Sld from Saldula pallipes (right photo). Cells of both isolates are typical promastigotes. By the sequences of spliced leader (miniexon) RNA genes (Podlipaev et al., manuscript submitted) these two trypanosomatids are very closely related to each other but are not identical. Sld was isolated in 2000 and PL in 2001 from the same spot.
 
       
                       
 

Culture form of Wallaceina sp. Wsd isolated from Salda littoralis. Most cells in culture are promastigotes (left), while some are endomastigotes (right). The miniexon sequence is different from that of two aforementioned leptomonads. This organism was isolated on the same spot and day as Leptomonas sp. PL indicating that the same host species simultaneously harbours two different parasites.