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Abstract Lophomonas blattarumis a facultative commensal gut dweller of common pest cockroaches. Its cells are roughly spherical in shape with an apical tuft of ~50 flagella. Controversially, it has been implicated in human respiratory infections based on light microscopic observations of similarly shaped cells in sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Here, we have sequenced the 18S rRNA gene ofL. blattarumand its sole congener,Lophomonas striata, isolated from cockroaches. Both species branch in a fully supported clade with Trichonymphida, consistent with a previous study ofL. striata, but not consistent with sequences from human samples attributed toL. blattarum. 

Abstract Spirotrichonymphea, one of the six classes of phylum Parabasalia, are characterized by bearing many flagella in spiral rows, and they occur exclusively in the guts of termites. Phylogenetic relationships among the 13 described genera are not well understood due to complex morphological evolution and a paucity of molecular data. One such understudied genus isSpironympha. It has been variously considered a valid genus, a subgenus ofSpirotrichonympha, or an “immature” life cycle stage ofSpirotrichonympha. To clarify this, we sequenced the small subunit rRNA gene sequences ofSpironymphaandSpirotrichonymphacells isolated from the hindguts ofReticulitermesspecies andHodotermopsis sjostedtiand confirmed the molecular identity ofH. sjostedtisymbionts using fluorescence in situ hybridization.Spironymphaas currently circumscribed is polyphyletic, with bothH. sjostedtisymbiont species branching separately from the “true”SpironymphafromReticulitermes. Similarly, theSpirotrichonymphasymbiont ofH. sjostedtibranches separately from the “true”Spirotrichonymphafound inReticulitermes. Our data supportSpironymphafromReticulitermesas a valid genus most closely related toSpirotrichonympha, though its monophyly and interspecific relationships are not resolved in our molecular phylogenetic analysis. We propose three new genera to accommodate theH. sjostedtisymbionts and two new species ofSpirotrichonymphafromReticulitermes.