genus of parasitic spore-forming protozoans, of the order Microsporida, found in host cells where it undergoes repeated asexual divisions followed by spore formation.

The species N. bombycis, which causes the epidemic disease pébrine in silkworms (silkworm moth), attacks all tissues and all developmental stages from embryo to adult. In advanced infections, small brown spots cover the body of the silkworm. Diseased larvae, which either are unable to spin cocoons or else spin them loosely, die without pupating. Louis Pasteur (Pasteur, Louis) identified the spores (“corpuscles”) of Nosema as the disease agent in 1865 and suggested control by destruction of infected silkworm colonies and improved sanitation.

Another species, N. apis, attacks the gut epithelium of honeybees (honeybee) (especially workers) and causes nosema disease, a serious form of dysentery in animals.