Blood Parasites of Birds from Almirante, Panama with ecological notes on the hosts

Abstract

A single-smear survey for blood parasites was conducted among birds of an area with a tropical rain forest climate in Panama. Birds were collected from a variety of habitats including, swamp forests, open fresh water marshes, peridomestic and second growth association and upland tropical rain forests. Smeats from 3,634 birds belonging to 249 species, 48 families and 19 orders were examíned and 926, or 25.5%, were found to harbor blood parasites. There were 5 main groups of parasites observed, namely, Plasmodium with 233 positive smears, Haemoproteus with 589, mícrofilaríae with 224, trypanosomes with 61 and Leucocytozoon with 18. Ten dífferent types of Plasmodium were recognized, of these, three did not seem to agree morphologically with any of the described forms of avian piasmodia and were designated in thís survey as "Butorides", "Casmerodius" and "Piaya" types. They were recorded trom the Green Heron, the Common Egret and the Squirrel Cuckoo, respectively. The remainíng seven types resembled morphologically the following species : P. relictum, P. cathemerium, P. hexamerium, (= oti), P. nucleophilium, P. vaughani, P. polare, and P. circumflexuz. Twelve distinct types of microfilariae were recognized from 134 smears collected early in the survey. Of these, 2 resembled closely Splendidofilaria wehri Anderson and Pseudaproctella inornata Anderson. Infections of Leucocytozoon were mainly found in North American migrants. There were only 6 smears found positive with this genus of blood parasites from four species of local birds, namely, a heron, a swallow, a flycatcher and an oriole. A list of all avian species collected is presented, giving the scientific and common names of each species. Brief notes on the habits and blood parasites of the species found infected are also included.