sandhills gregarine survey & www gregarine information server

Welcome to Hotel Intestine´s Gregarine Information Server.

   This web-site is designed to:
   1) Disseminate the results of our research on gregarine parasites;
   2) Provide literature resources, techniques, and protocols to promote
   gregarine research and the use of gregarines as teaching models; and,
   3) Promote our vision of a research community that extends beyond the
   walls of the laboratory and is open to all interested citizens.

The site contains research data and images, taxonomic keys, rare literature and Hotel Intestine Reprints (PDF download), techniques and protocols, systematic arrangements, and some information about the folks that work and study in Hotel Intestine. Feel free to browse the site and contact us for more information, collaboration, or questions. We welcome comments and questions from all quarters: academia, K-12 educators and students, industry, and most importantly, the average citizen with an interest in the natural world.

Thanks for visiting and we hope you find what you´re looking for . . . if not, contact the professionals here at Hotel Intestine: "Gregarines installed and serviced here." - Rich Clopton

Why study gregarines?
Although the notion affronts our traditional paradigms, the most common way of life on earth may well be as a parasite in the intestine of an insect. Parasitism is a pervasive phenomenon observed among members of almost all phyla and approximately 70% of the world's taxa are parasitic, making parasitism a more common way of life than all other trophic habits combined (Price, 1980). As each individual parasite must exploit at least one host individual, parasitism potentially influences the life of every living organism. Insects are by far the most prevalent of available hosts, comprising 950,000 of the 1.4 million species of named plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms on earth (Savage, 1995). The prevalence of arthropod design and the ubiquity of parasitism provide a novel view of life on earth: the "average" living animal, taxonomically and numerically, is an arthropod less than 1 inch long that probably hosts at least one, if not several, parasitic taxa (Groombridge, 1992; Price, 1980; Wilson, 1988).
The septate gregarines (Protista: Apicomplexa: Eugregarinida) are arguably one of the least known but most intriguing parasite groups living today. They are a diverse group of small, gut-dwelling protozoans that parasitize a wide array of invertebrates including insects, crustaceans, mollusks, arachnids, and annelids. The gregarines are cosmopolitan in distribution and conservative estimates place their global diversity at well over 1 million species, nearly 5 times the diversity often projected for the entire kingdom Protoctista (Levine, 1988; Savage, 1995).

Why Hotel Intestine?
Quite simply, the richest diversity of life on Earth is probably represented by the gregarines in the intestines of insects. Seems like a place where one should spend some time and try to learn something.
   Our goal at Hotel Intestine is to provide a widely-distributed gregarine knowledge base that integrates new gregarine species and ecological associations discovered through basic biological survey systematic revision of existing information and specimens. Hotel Intestine includes several undergraduate researchers under the direction of Dr. Rich Clopton at Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska, undergraduate and graduate researchers under the direction of Drs. Tami and Jerry Cook at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, and a host of collaborators around the United States and abroad. In keeping with the traditions of our home institutions our program also focuses on undergraduate teaching and research through hands-on training of the next generation of systematists. The first question in zoology is "What is it?" We are training scientists to answer that question for the new millenium.
   The National Science Foundation has generously provided support for our work since 1997, funding our biological survey and inventory of gregarines parasitizing arthropods (primarily insects) of the Nebraska Sandhills, including summer survey work in the sandhills and systematic work in our laboratory throughout the year through grant award DEB-9705179. This web-site serves as the electronic distribution point for the project.
   We are currently engaged in a biological survey and inventory of gregarines parasitizing insects of the aquatic and riparian zones of the Big Thicket region in Texas. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation through collaborative grant awards NSF0340774 to Dr. Clopton at PSC and NSF0340782 to Drs. Cook at SHSU.
   REFERENCES
GROOMBRIDGE, B. 1992. Global biodiversity: status of the earth's living resources. London (UK): Chapman & Hall.
LEVINE, N. D. 1988. The protozoan phylum Apicomplexa. Chemical Rubber Company Press, Boca Raton, Florida, 2 vols, 154 p.
PRICE, P. W. 1980. Evolutionary biology of parasites. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 237 p.
SAVAGE, J. M. 1995. Systematics and the biodiversity crisis. BioScience. 45:673-679.
WILSON, E. O. 1988. The current state of biodiversity. Pages 3-18 in Wilson, E. O. & Peter, F. F. (eds.) Biodiversity. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
   This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through grant awards DEB-9705179,0340774, and 0340782. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Dr. R. E. Clopton