From 1873 onwards Aimé Schneider made important additions to the knowledge of the morphology, life-history, and systematic position of numerous gregarines. Bütschli (1881) and L. Léger (1892) also contributed much work on the subject. The discoveries of Schaudinn with regard to the life-cycle of Coccidia gave a fresh stimulus to the study of the Gregarines, whereby the life-cycles of numerous forms and the phases thereof have been elucidated. Asexual multiplication is not common among the Gregarines, but is known to occur in the sub-order Schizogregarinea, formerly known as the Amœbosporidia. Although the Gregarinida are not known to be parasitic in man or other vertebrates, they are of great interest, inasmuch as they are among the earliest known Sporozoa, and therefore will be briefly described here. [Illustration: FIG. 59.--_Monocystis agilis_ from seminal vesicles of _Lumbricus_ × 250. (After Stein.)] [Illustration: FIG. 60.--_Gregarina longa_ from larva of crane-fly (_Tipula_). _a_, in epithelial cell of host; _b_, _c_, gradually leaving host-cell; _d_, adhering to host-cell; _e_, fully developed free trophozoite.] The Gregarines are usually elongate, somewhat flattened organisms (figs. 59, 60), whose bodies are enclosed in an elastic and often thick cuticle. The enclosed living substance shows a separation into ectoplasm and endoplasm, as is common among Protozoa. The cuticle is sometimes regarded as the outer portion or epicyte of the ectoplasm. A single, vesicular, spherical, or elliptical, large nucleus, with its chromatin concentrated to form a spherical karyosome, is present. The body of some gregarines may be divided by ingrowing ectoplasmic partitions or septa, and are then said to be “septate” or “polycystid” (fig. 61). Other gregarines remain simple and non-septate, and are termed “monocystid” (fig. 59). The monocystid gregarines occur especially in the body cavity of Chætopoda and Insecta, more rarely in Echinodermata, in the parenchyma of Platyhelminthes, also in the gut of Tunicata and Insecta (fig. 60) and in the seminal vesicles of Annelida. In the polycystid gregarines a single septum only is present as a rule, and thus the body presents two portions: (1) an anterior portion termed the protomerite; (2) a posterior, larger portion, known as the deutomerite, which generally contains the nucleus. The protomerite is often modified anteriorly to form an organ of attachment, termed the epimerite (fig. 61), which is developed from the pointed rostrum of the sporozoite or primary infecting young gregarine. The structure of the epimerite may be complicated, being provided with hooks, spines, knobs, and other appendages. An extension of the polycystid condition is seen in _Tæniocystis mira_ Léger (from the dipteran larva, _Ceratopogon solstitialis_), whose body shows a number of partitions, giving the organism a superficial resemblance to a tapeworm.