Lanius tigrinus Drapiez 1828

Lanius tigrinus

Locality. – Malaysia: Pasoh, 1998; Singapore: Nee Soon, 1998.

Description.– Available blood films were faded. The infected erythrocytes are distorted with a displaced laterally or distally nucleus. They contain either a schizont, with 5–12 nuclei, or one to two usually rounded gametocytes (4.8 ± 1.2 × 3.44 ± 1.07; range 3.3–5.94 × 2.2–5.06) with a few (one to five), sometimes aggregated coarse pigment granules, and outlines of one or two vacuoles. The pigment granules in some trophozoites are aggregated, or encircle the vacuole; the faded state of the stain obscures other details. Infected erythrocytes are 12.7 ± 0.91 × 7.1 ± 0.91 with 5.72 ± 0.39 × 2.3 ± 0.30 nuclei.

Remarks. – Laird (1997) lists Lanius spp. among the commonest hosts of Pla. (H.) matutinum (Huff, 1937) Coradetti et al., 1960 in SE Asia. Originally isolated from Turdus migratorius in North America, most of the descriptions were made from infections in experimental hosts. The redescription (Corradetti et al., 1960) from the European host, Turdus iliacus, as cited by Laird, also incorporates data from experimental hosts. Neither the faded state of our specimens, nor Laird’s description and illustrations, including of the infection from Lan. cristatus, can provide an unambiguous identification of the Plasmodium species found.