ArticleAyala SC.
J Protozool. 1978 Feb;25(1):87-100.
World literature on Plasmodium of squamate reptiles (1909-1975) includes 156 published accounts on 54 valid species and subspecies. AFRICA: 30 reports on 9 species; AUSTRALIA, ASIA & OCEANIA: 12 reports on 6 species and 2 subspecies; AMERICAS: 116 reports on 37 species. More than half of these reports and new species descriptions appeared during the last 10 years. Most concern plasmodia in lizards of the Neotropics, Georgia (Plasmodium floridense, a Neotropical-Caribbean parasite) and California (Plasmodium mexicanum). African host species are all lizards: 4 agamids, 3 skinks, 2 chamaeleonids, one chordyline, and one gerrhosaurine. Australasian host species are also all lizards: 6 agamids, 9 skinks, 2 lacertids, one (or two?) gekkonids, and one varanid. Known American host species include 12 snakes and 87 lizards: 34 anoline species, 12 sceloporines (plus 11 others experimentally infected), 4 basiliscines, 5 tropidurines, 2 iguanines, 2 skinks (one questionable), 2 anguids (a total of 4 animals), 4 sphaerodactylines, 2 gekkonines and 11 teiid species.