Type host: Talpa europaea Linnaeus, 1758, European mole.

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: EUROPE: former USSR: Russia, Polotzk District.

Geographic distribution: EUROPE: Bulgaria, Germany, Russia.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: ovoid; number of walls: 1 (line drawing); wall thickness: ~1.0; wall characteristics: smooth; L x W: 21.9 x 15.7 (18-23 x 14-16); L/W ratio: 1.4; M: absent; OR: absent; PG: absent. Distinctive features of oocyst: having neither an OR nor PGs.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoites: Sporocyst shape: ovoid (text) to elongate ellipsoid (line drawing); L x W: not given; L/W ratio: unknown; SB: absent; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: absent; SP: with 1 ovoid RB at rounded end (line drawing). Distinctive features of sporocyst: without SB and SR.

Prevalence: 2/10 (20%).

Sporulation: Unknown.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

Site of infection: Unknown. Oocysts recovered from feces and intestinal contents.

Materials deposited: None.

Remarks: Although Yakimoff (1935) suggested that this species might be the same as the undescribed Eimeria oocysts first noted by Henry (1932), this seems unlikely given the host and geographic differences. Oocysts of this species seen by Golemansky (1979) in 1/10 T. europaea from Sreburna Reserve, Bulgaria, measured 20 x 17.8. Although they did not confirm the identity of this species by finding sporulated oocysts, Entzeroth and Scholtyseck (1984) said they were describing the ultrastructure of its macro- and microgametocytes when they examined the intestine of an infected mole caught near Bonn, Germany. Gamonts of both sexes were situated in the cytoplasm of crypt epithelial cells within a membrane-lined parasitophorous vacuole. Often, male and female gamonts were in the same host cell. Unfortunately, there is no solid evidence that these intracellular stages actually produce the sporulated oocysts reported by Yakmoff (1935).

References: Henry (1932); Yakimoff (1935); Golemansky (1979); Entzeroth and Scholtyseck (1984).