Description of Leucocytozoon

Plasmodiid apicomplexan, gamonts in white blood cells and/or erythrocytes; merogony in parenchyma of liver, heart, kidney, or other organs; meronts may form large bodies divided into cytomeres; no merogony in leucocytes or erythrocytes; hemozoin deposits not formed; oocysts develop rapidly in 3 to 5 days; oocysts small and nonexpanding, reaching 13 µm in diameter, with less than 100 short, thick sporozoites; vectors simuliids or Culicoides; in birds). Type species: Leucocytozoon ziemanni