Data for: Avian malaria on Madagascar: Prevalence, biodiversity and specialization of haemosporidian parasites

The parasite lineages found were further characterized phylogenetically and additionally the degree of specialization was determined with a newly introduced "Host-diversity" index (Hd). Our results demonstrate that Madagascar indeed represents a biodiversity hotspot for avian haemosporidian parasites as we detected 88 genetically distinct parasite lineages. Furthermore, by using a phylogenetic approach and including the sequence divergence we were able to assign the lineages to 29 groups i.e. supposed species.

The here presented Hd-values for each parasite regarding host species, genus and family strongly support previous works demonstrating the elastic host ranges of some avian Haemosporida. In general, Plasmodium and Leucocytozoon species seem to be generalists whereas Haemoproteus species might be considered specialists. However, as demonstrated in various examples, single parasite species or lineages can deviate from this rule and should be examined individually.