When studying the effects of parasites on natural populations, the avian haematozoa fulfills many of the specifications of an ideal model. Featuring a multitude of tables and illustrations, Avian Malaria Parasites and Other Haemosporidia summarizes more than a century of research on bird haemosporidians. For a long time, bird blood parasites served as important models in studying human diseases. Although now largely replaced, the wealth of data and research remain. With chapters addressing life cycles and morphology, pathogenicity, ultrastructure, geographical distribution, and illustrated keys to all known species of the parasites, this book is a masterful assessment of the biology of bird haemosporidian parasites.

The Tropics are home to the greatest biodiversity in the world, but tropical species are at risk due to anthropogenic activities, mainly land use change, habitat loss, invasive species, and pathogens. Over the past 20 years, the avian malaria and related parasites (Order: Haemosporida) systems have received increased attention in the tropical regions from a diverse array of research perspectives. However, to date no attempts have been made to synthesize the available information and to propose new lines of research. This book provides such a synthesis by not only focusing on the antagonistic interactions, but also by providing conceptual chapters on topics going from avian haemosporidians life cycles and study techniques, to chapters addressing current concepts on ecology and evolution. For example, a chapter synthesizing basic biogeography and ecological niche model concepts is presented, followed by one on the island biogeography of avian haemosporidians. Accordingly, researchers and professionals interested in these antagonistic interaction systems will find both an overview of the field with special emphasis on the tropics, and access to the necessary conceptual framework for various topics in ecology, evolution and systematics. Given its conceptual perspective, the book will appeal not only to readers interested in avian haemosporidians, but also to those more generally interested in the ecology, evolution and systematics of host-parasite interactions.

This comprehensive, groundbreaking book on the biodiversity of parasites offers a clear and accessible explanation of how parasite biodiversity provides insight into the history and biogeography of other organisms, the structure of ecosystems, and the processes that lead to the diversification of life.

Marshall Lairds Avian Malaria In The Asian Tropical Subregion will be only the second book to be devoted solely to the species of Plasmodium parasitising birds. The first, Redginal Hewitts Bird Malaria, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, appeared in 1940, and was largely devoted to relevant laboratory investigations. A number of additional species of these parasites had been described by 1966, when the late Professor Cyril Garnhams classic Malaria Parasites And Other Haemosporidia was published (Blackwell, Oxford), eight of the fifty chapters of which concerned the true avian malaria parasites and have since remained the standard reference. The present book is particularly timely in bringing the whole subject up to date for a huge tropical part of the globe, which is at the same time at the heart of a widespread network of migratory bird species; many of which it demonstrates to carry important species of plasmodia in their blood. The authors findings, which demonstrate the presence of most of the valid species of bird malaria parasites and a single highly distinct new one in the Asian Tropical Subregion and its eastern and western borders, will serve as a source for the sure identification of these; illustrated as it is by high quality photomicrographs from many of the 536 individual birds of 180 species found Pl - +ve, thanks to MAPS.