ORIGINAL ARTICLE Diversity of Trypanosomatids in Cockroaches and the Description of Herpetomonas tarakana sp. n. Vyacheslav Yurchenko a,b , Alexei Kostygov a,c , Jolana Havlov a d , Anastasiia Grybchuk-Ieremenko a , Tereza  Sev c  ıkov a a , Julius Luke s b,e,f , Jan  Sev c  ık g & Jan Vot ypka b,d a Life Science Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic b Biology Centre, Institute of Parasitology, Czech Academy of Sciences, 370 05  Cesk e Bud ejovice (Budweis), Czech Republic c Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia d Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, 128 44 Prague, Czech Republic, e Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, 370 05  Cesk e Bud ejovice (Budweis), Czech Republic f Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontorio M5G 1Z8, Canada g Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic Keywords Monoxenous Trypanosomatidae; parasites of cockroaches; taxonomy. Correspondence V. Yurchenko, Life Science Research Centre, University of Ostrava, Chittussiho 10, 710 00 Ostrava, Czech Republic Telephone number: +420 597092326; FAX number: +420 597092382; e-mail: vyacheslav.yurchenko@osu.cz J. Vot ypka, Department of Parasitology, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Vini cn a 7, 128 44 Prague 2, Czech Republic Telephone number: + 420 221951826; FAX number: +420 224919704; e-mail: vapid@natur.cuni.cz Vyacheslav Yurchenko and Alexei Kostygov equally contributed to this article. Received: 10 June 2015; revised 2 September 2015; accepted September 2, 2015. doi:10.1111/jeu.12268 ABSTRACT In this study, we surveyed six species of cockroaches, two synanthropic (i.e. ecologically associated with humans) and four wild, for intestinal trypanoso- matid infections. Only the wild cockroach species were found to be infected, with flagellates of the genus Herpetomonas. Two distinct genotypes were documented, one of which was described as a new species, Herpetomonas tarakana sp. n. We also propose a revision of the genus Herpetomonas and creation of a new subfamily, Phytomonadinae, to include Herpetomonas, Phytomonas, and a newly described genus Lafontella n. gen. (type species Lafontella mariadeanei comb. n.), which can be distinguished from others by morphological and molecular traits. FLAGELLATES of the family Trypanosomatidae are obli- gate parasites of vertebrates, plants, and invertebrates. Dixenous species shuttle between two hosts (an inverte- brate and a vertebrate for the genera Trypanosoma and Leishmania; or an invertebrate and a plant for the genus Phytomonas) during their life cycle. Monoxenous try- panosomatids (i.e. parasitizing one host, usually an insect) have recently attracted more attention due to their high diversity and virtually ubiquitous presence and thus, an important role they may play in ecosystems and biomes (Maslov et al. 2013). These flagellates are also widely used by parasitologists as model systems helping to understand how their extremely successful parasitic life style has emerged and evolved (Luke s et al. 2014). For- merly, the taxonomy of the family Trypanosomatidae was based on cell morphotypes and details of the life cycle that resulted in inconsistency among the classification and experimental data. Now the taxonomic system of these flagellates is undergoing a significant development mostly powered by molecular methods (Vot ypka et al. 2015). Recently, some old taxa were redefined and new ones were characterized with the use of molecular phylogenetic approaches (Borghesan et al. 2013; Vot ypka et al. 2013; Yurchenko et al. 2008). The 18S ribosomal RNA, spliced leader RNA, and glycosomal glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gGAPDH) genes, as well as the internal © 2015 The Author(s) Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology © 2015 International Society of Protistologists Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 2016, 63, 198–209 198 Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology ISSN 1066-5234 Published by the International Society of Protistologists