The illustrations show the characteristics of the four species. Rings appear fine and delicate and there may be several in one cell. Some rings may have two chromatin dots. Presence of marginal or applique forms. It is unusual to see developing forms in peripheral blood films.
Gametocytes have a characteristic crescent shape appearance.
However, they do not usually appear in the blood for the first four weeks of infection. Maurer's dots may be present. Schuffner's dots are frequently present in the red cells as shown above. The mature ring forms tend to be large and coarse. Developing forms are frequently present.