Summary

No indigenous species of haematozoa have yet been described from New Zealand birds. Plasmodium relictum var. spheniscidae, recorded by Fantham and Porter (1944) from Megadyptes antipodes in Foveaux Strait, is apparently of circumpolar distribution. The other Haemosporidia specifically identified during this survey were originally described from Europe, whence their hosts originate. It is likely that Plasmodium sp? recorded from the indigenous birds Anas poicilorhyncha and Anthus novaeseelandiae will prove to be Plasmodium relictum when further material becomes available.

Neither trypanosomes nor microfilariae have yet been recorded from birds in New Zealand. The haemosporidian genus Leucocytozoon is now listed from this country for the first time, as is Toxoplasma, the systematic position of which is still in question. Doré's (1920) record of Plasmodium from Turdus ericetorum and Turdus merula is expanded to Plasmodium relictum; and his tentative identification of Haemoproteus danilewsky from these same hosts is confirmed. Anas poicilorhyncha is given as a new host for Plasmodium sp?, and Passer domesticus is recorded as an additional New Zealand host for Plasmodium relictum.