''Plasmodium circularis'' is a parasite of the genus ''

Plasmodium ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a vert ...

'' subgenus ''

Sauramoeba ''Sauramoeba'' is a subgenus of the genus ''Plasmodium'', all of which are parasitic eukaryotes. The subgenus was created in 1966 by Garnham. Species in this subgenus infect reptiles. Description The original criterion for inclusion in this ...

''. Like all ''Plasmodium'' species ''P. circularis'' has both

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxon, taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with vertebral column, backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the ...

and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are reptiles.

Description

The parasite was first described by Telford and Stein in 2000.

Geographical occurrence

This species is found in Australia and infects the Australian

skink Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. S ...

Egernia stokesii ''Egernia stokesii'' is a gregarious species of lizard of the Scincidae family. This diurnal species is endemic to Australia, and is also known as the Gidgee skink, spiny-tailed skink, Stokes's skink and Stokes's egernia. The species forms stab ...

''.

References

circularis {{plasmodium-stub