Table 17.

Key to the Haemoproteus species of Gruiformes birds

Step	Features and species
1 (6)	Growing dumbbell-shaped gametocytes (Fig. 18f, g) are absent
2 (3)	Growing and fully grown gametocytes are elongate and slender (Fig. 18a, b); they do not display or only slightly display nuclei of the infected erythrocytes laterally (Fig. 18a, b). The average NDR is close to 1
	………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….	H. balearicae (Fig. 18a, b) [3, 110]
3 (2)	Growing and fully grown gametocytes are broadly halteridial (Fig. 18c, d); they do not assume slender form (Fig. 18a, b). Fully grown gametocytes markedly display nuclei of the infected erythrocytes laterally (Fig. 18d, e); the average NDR is less than 0.5
4 (5)	Average number of pigment granules in macrogametocytes is greater than 25
	………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….	H. gallinulae (Fig. 18c, d) [3, 111, 112]
5 (4)	Average number of pigment granules in macrogametocytes is less than 25
	………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….	H. antigonis (Fig. 18e) [3, 113]
6 (1)	Growing dumbbell-shaped gametocytes (Fig. 18f, g) are common
	………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….	H. porzanae (Fig. 18f–h) [3, 112]