The genus
Haemocystidium was created to give a name to the haemoproteid of a gecko belonging to the genus
Hemidactylus in
Sri Lanka by Castellani and Willey in 1904. A second species in this genus was described in 1909 by Johnston and Cleland who found pigmented
gametocytes in the blood of the
Australian
tortoise Chelodina longicollis. These species were transferred to
Haemoproteus in 1926 by Wenyon. The genus was resurrected by Garnham in 1966 when he created a new generic name -
Simondia - for the haemoproteids of
chelonians. He followed the opinions of Wenyon, Hewitt and DeGiusti and suggested that all these parasites belonged to the one species -
Simondia metchnikovi. He retained the name
Haemocystidium for the haemoproteids of
lizards. Levine and Campbell in 1971 moved all the species in
Simondia and
Haemocystidium into
Haemoproteus an opinion that was followed by subsequent authors. The genus
Haemocystidium was resurrected again by Telford in 1996 when he described three new species of protozoa in geckos from
Pakistan. The haemosporidians found in reptiles have been classified into several families; Haemoproteidae, genera Haemoproteus sp. and Haemocystidium This genus like those of many protozoa may be further modified once additional DNA sequences are available. ==Description==