Haemoproteus insects including mosquitoes, biting midges ("Culicoides"), louse flies ("Hippoboscidae") and tabanid flies ("Tabanidae"). Infection with this genus is sometimes known as pseudomalaria because of the parasites' similarities with "Plasmodium" species. Within the genus there are at least 173 species, 5 varieties and 1 subspecies. Of these over 140 occur in birds, 16 in reptiles and 3 in amphibia: 14 orders and 50 families of birds are represented. These include gamebirds ("Galliformes"), waterfowl ("Anseriformes"), raptors ("Accipitriformes", "Falconiformes", "Strigiformes"), pigeons and doves ("Columbiformes"), and perching birds or songbirds ("Passeriformes"). The first description of this genus was in 1890 by Kruse who described
Killing Birds Soavi, who had direted "Stage Fright" for him in 1987, to direct "Killing Birds" next. However, Soavi chose to direct "The Church" instead when "Lamberto Bava" decided not to do it as part of his "Demons" series. Soavi's assistant director on "Stage Fright", Claudio Lattanzi, was used as director for "Killing Birds". There are differing testimonies as to how D'Amato and Lattanzi shared in directing the film: The film was released theatrically in Italy through "DMV distribuzione" in 1988 under the English title "Killing Birds" and later on home video: on VHS by "Magnum 3B" under the title "Killing Birds: