Interpopulation variation of a saurian malaria, Plasmodium sasai telford & ball, 1969, in three host species distributed within a range of 24° north latitude

Abstract

Telford S. R., jr. 1982. Interpopulation variation of a saurian malaria. Plasmodium sasai Telford & Ball, 1969, in three host species distributed within a range of 24° north latitude. International Journal for Parasitology 12: 17–22. The saurian parasite P. sasai has been found in four populations of three host species which range from Niigata Prefecture, Honshu to Bangkok, Thailand, a distance exceeding 4600 km and 24° north latitude. Variation of P. sasai within samples from the type population exceeds that found among samples from all three hosts, Takydromus tachydromoides (Honshu), T. smaragdinus (Amami Island, Ryukyus) and T. sexlineatus (Thailand). Plasmodium sasai was associated with Trypanosoma sp., Schellackia sp. and Pirhemocyton in two or more host species in ricefield-margin habitat bordered by shrub-like or heavier vegetation. This association possibly represents persistence of a host-parasite complex which evolved with an ancestral lacertid stock that later diversified into the present Takydromus species.