''Plasmodium booliati'' 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 Hematophagy, blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then inj ...

'' subgenus ''

Vinckeia ''Vinckeia'' is a subgenus of the genus ''Plasmodium'' — all of which are parasitic Alveolata, alveolates. The subgenus ''Vinckeia'' was created by Cyril Garnham in 1964 to accommodate the mammalian parasites other than those infecting the prim ...

''. As in all ''Plasmodium'' species, ''P. booliati'' has both

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

Taxonomy

The parasite was first described by Sandosham ''et al.'' in 1965.Sandosham A.A., Yap L.F., Omar I. (1965) A malaria parasite, ''Plasmodium (Vinckeia) booliati'' sp.nov., from a Malayan giant flying squirrel. Med. J. Malaya 20(1):3-7

Distribution

This species occurs in

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

Vectors

Not known.

Hosts

The only known host of this species is the Malayan giant

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...

References

booliati Apicomplexa species {{plasmodium-stub