Hematozoa of the avian family Philepittidae (the asities and sunbird asities).

Abstract

Blood smears from birds in the Philepittidae, endemic to Madagascar, were examined for the presence of hematozoa. All slides were read on a compound microscope at x100, x160, and x1000. To date, no species of avian hematozoa has been reported from asities in Madagascar, although parasites have been observed. Leucocytozoon greineri n. sp. is described from the common sunbird asity (Neodrepanis coruscans) and is also reported from the velvet asity (Philepitta castanea). It is a relatively small species of Leucocytozoon, less than 2 times the size of uninfected erythrocytes. The parasite is capped by the host cell nucleus, covering 38% of the parasite perimeter. This represents the first description of hematozoa from this family.