It was reported by a Dutch parasitologist Steffen Lambert Brug in 1927 from Southeast Asia (Malaya, for which the name was given).

It was for this reason that Brug gave the original name Microfilaria (Filaria) malayi.

He found both the worms in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes; but in New Guinea only W. bancrofti was present, but not the new species.

[5] They are so similar that even after a decade of research, there were still arguments of B. malayi as a separate and valid species.

He created a new genus Brugia in honour of the original discoverer, thus renaming B. malayi, B. pahangi, and B.

But they can be differentiated from their smaller microfilariae, complex spicules, and fewer caudal papillae (typically 11, while it is 24 in W.

Mosquitos are the intermediate host in which the young larvae develop, and thus they are also the vectors of filariasis.

[13] Humans (for B. malayi and B. timori), and animals (for B. pahangi and B. patei) acts as the definitive hosts in which the adult worms cause filariasis.