Fig. 1.—

Four phylogenetic hypotheses (A–D) illustrating the proposed relationships between species of Haemoproteus, Plasmodium of birds (including reptiles), Plasmodium of mammals, and Plasmodium of the subgenus Laverania, which contains the human parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Bird (and reptile) parasite branches are labeled in blue and mammal parasite branches in green. Triangular branch tips contain multiple species (in the range of 100–1,000); the Laverania branch may include about ten species infecting apes. Data presented in this work support phylogenetic hypothesis A.