Kingdom Protista Class Aconoidasida Family Plasmodiidae Rank Species | Phylum Apicomplexa Order Haemosporida Genus Plasmodium | |
Plasmodium polymorphum is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium.
Contents
Like all Plasmodium species P. polymorphum has both vertebrate and insect hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are birds.
Description
This species was described by Zehtindjiev et al.
This species shows a marked preference of its blood stages for immature erythrocytes, including erythroblasts. Uniquely for an avian malaria species development and maturation of the gametocytes occur in immature red blood cells. Also uniquely the margins of nuclei in blood stages of are markedly smooth and distinct.
It appears morphologically to be related to the Huffia subgenus but this has yet to be established.
Geographical occurrence
This species was isolated in southern Italy. Because the host carries out an annual migration the parasite may also occur elsewhere.
Vectors
Not known.
Clinical features and host pathology
P. accipiteris infects the skylark (Alauda arvensis).