Keys to the avian malaria parasites.

This study shows that 55 described species of avian Plasmodium can be readily identified using morphological features of their blood stages. These were incorporated in the keys. Numerous synonymous names of Plasmodium species and also the names belonging to the category species inquirenda exist, and they can be used as reserves for future taxonomy studies. Molecular markers are unavailable for 58% of described Plasmodium parasites, raising a task for the current avian malaria researchers to fill up this gap.