Plasmodium mexicanum is a parasite of the genus Plasmodium

Plasmodium

Plasmodium is a genus of parasitic protists. Infection by these organisms is known as malaria. The genus Plasmodium was described in 1885 by Ettore Marchiafava and Angelo Celli. Currently over 200 species of this genus are recognized and new species continue to be described.Of the over 200 known...

subgenus Paraplasmodium

Paraplasmodium

Paraplasmodium is a subgenus of the genus Plasmodium - all of which are parastic protozoa. The subgenus was created by Telford in 1988. Species in this subgenus infect lizards.- Diagnostic features :...

.

Like all Plasmodium species P. mexicanum has both vertebrate

Vertebrate

Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...

 and insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

 hosts. The vertebrate hosts for this parasite are reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s.

Clinical features and host pathology

This parasite infects the Scleroporus ferraripezi, Scleroporus horridus, Scleroporus microlepidotus, western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis), Scleroporus pyrocephalus, Scleroporus variabilis, Scleroporus torquatus torquatus and the tree lizard (Urosaurus ornatus

Urosaurus ornatus

The Tree lizard or Ornate Tree Lizard is a species of lizard that is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The species has been used to research the physiological changes in the body during the fight-or-flight response as related to stress and aggressive competition...

).

This species is unusual in being able to undergo normal sporogony in psychodid flies (Lutzomyia stewarti and Lutzomyia vexatrix).