Nycteria
genus of protists
Nycteria is a genus of protozoan parasites that belong to the phylum Apicomplexa. It is composed of vector-borne haemosporidian parasites that infect a wide range of mammals such as primates, rodents and bats. Its vertebrate hosts are bats. First described by Garnham and Heisch in 1953, Nycteria is mostly found in bat species where it feeds off the blood of their hosts and causes disease. Within the host, Nycteria develops into peculiar lobulated schizonts in parenchyma cells of the liver, similarly to the stages of Plasmodium falciparum in the liver. The vector of Nycteria has been hard to acquire and identify. Because of this, the life cycle of Nycteria still remains unknown and understudied. It has been suggested that this vector could be an arthropod other than a mosquito or the vector of most haemosporidian parasites.
Etymology
The word Nycteris is derived from the Greek word "nykteros", also "bat". Nycteris is a bat genus in the family Nycteridae, and the genus name Nycteria was given to underline the relationship between these bats and their parasites.
The public source identifies “Nycteria” as genus of protists. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nycteria, genus and protists.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7071003. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1953.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nycteria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.