The ability of in vitro grown Leishmania promastigotes to resist lysis by complement and survive in undiluted human serum was related to the species of Leishmania and the growth phase in culture. Promastigotes from log phase cultures were always killed in undiluted serum, whereas survival of stationary phase promastigotes varied among species. All L. major and L. m. amazonensis were killed, while up to 30% of L.b. panamensis and 10% of L. donovani survived. Lysis of promastigotes by human serum was inhibited in heat-inactivated serum and EDTA-chelated serum, indicating that activation of complement was responsible for killing. Therefore, during growth in vitro, some strains of Leishmania promastigotes can undergo development from a complement-susceptible to -resistant stage. Stationary phase promastigotes of L.b. panamensis which survived in undiluted human serum were capable of subsequent growth in culture, and were also able to initiate infection in Mystromys albicaudatus. Organisms selected on the basis of complement resistance were more infective for M. albicaudatus than either log phase promastigotes or unselected promastigotes from stationary cultures. These data support the notion that the life cycle of Leishmania includes an infective stage promastigote which is generated during growth within the sandfly and which, on inoculation, is able to survive the potentially lethal effect of normal serum before uptake by host macrophages.