Saurocytozoon Parasites (Haemosporidia: Plasmodiidae) from Southeast Asian Skinks

Abstract

Saurocytozoon parasites commonly found in Mabuya multifasciata (Sauria: Scincidae) from Sin- gapore and Thailand do not differ morphologically from S. mabuyi Lainson, Landau and Shaw, 1974, originally described from Mabuya mabouya of Brazil. They are here considered conspecific, indicating that Saurocytozoon is not a New World endemic but entered the Neotropics from the Oriental or Ethiopian regions in a Mabuya host, the precursor to M. mabouya. If so, the parasite of teiid lizards, Saurocytozoon tupinambi Lainson and Shaw, 1969 would appear to be derived from S. mabuyi, because the Teiidae are endemic to the Neotropical Region. Saurocytozoon is considered a plasmodiid genus because its sporogonic pattern more closely resembles the Plasmodiidae than the Leucocytozoidae, as originally proposed. The haemosporidian genus Saurocytozoon Lainson and Shaw, 1969 was described from the Brazilian lizard Tupinambis nigropunctatus (= T. teguixin). It is distinguished by the presence of unpigmented gametocytes alone in leucocytic host cells of reptiles. The genotype, S. tupinambi, was later found in Venezuela (Telford, 1978) in the same host, and in another teiid lizard, Croc- odilurus lacertinus in Brazil (Lainson, Landau and Shaw, 1974). A second species, Saurocyto- zoon mabuyi was described by the latter authors from the skink Mabuya mabouya in Brazil. There have been no reports of Saurocytozoon from out- side of the Neotropical Region.