Volume 7, Number 1—February 2001
Synopsis
Geographic Subdivision of the Range of the Malaria Parasite, Plasmodium vivax
Jun Li*, William E. Collins†, Robert A. Wirtz†, Dharmendar Rathore*, Altaf Lal†, and Thomas F. McCutchan*
Table
Anopheles albimanus exhibits greater susceptibility to New World versus Old World Plasmodium vivax
| Infection rate | ||
|---|---|---|
| P. vivax | Mosquito | (No. positive/no. fed) |
| New World | An. albimanus | 21.2% (5,888/27,700) |
| An. freeborni | 57.1% (13,227/25,555) | |
| Old World | An. albimanus | 0.4% (10/2,508) |
| An. freeborni | 57% (1,790/3,135) | |
¹The biologic diversity inherent in P. vivax already justifies the use of a trinomial system for naming its members that includes the designation of subspecies, a taxonomic character given formal recognition in the International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature. A subspecies is a population or group of populations inhabiting a geographic subdivision of the range of a species and differing from other populations by diagnostic morphologic characteristics.
²The designation of separate species does not require that the two organisms cannot mate and produce viable progeny, only that this does not happen with frequency in natural situations.
