Type host: Scalopus aquaticus (Linnaeus, 1758), Eastern American mole.

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: NORTH AMERICA: USA, Texas, Motley Co.

Geographic distribution: NORTH AMERICA: USA, Texas.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: spheroid to subspheroid; number of walls: 2; wall thickness: ~1.0; wall characteristics: both layers smooth and of equal thickness; L x W: 13.6 x 12.6 (11-17 x 11-15); L/W ratio: 1.1 (1.0-1.2); M: absent; OR: present; OR characteristics: an irregular mass of small granules; PG: absent. Distinctive features of oocyst: smooth outer wall with distinct OR and sporocysts tightly packed into oocyst.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoites: Sporocyst shape: lemon-shaped; L x W: 8.7 x 5.5 (7-10 x 4-7); L/W ratio: 1.6 (1.2-2.0); SB: present; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: small granules either concentrated or dispersed; SP: with a posterior RB. Distinctive features of sporocyst: small size and lack of SSB.

Prevalence: 6/13 (46%).

Sporulation: Exogenous. Oocysts sporulated in 7-10 days in 2.5% aqueous (w/v) potassium dichromate solution at 23 C.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

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

Materials deposited: Skin, skull, skeleton and tissues of the symbiotype host are preserved in the Mammal Division of the Museum of SW Biology, UNM: MSB No.42352 (NK 2001, female), J. Haydock #149, 19 May, 1980. Photosyntypes in the USNPC No. 86001.

Remarks: Oocysts of this species resemble those of E. bentongi, E. madagascarensis, and E. milleri. They differ from those of E. bentongi by having 2 layers in the oocyst wall that, combined, are thinner than the 1-layered wall of E. bentongi (1.0 vs 1.5); they also have a granular OR, which is absent in E. bentongi, and lack a small PG present in E. bentongi. They differ from theose of E. madagascarensis by having a bi-layered wall ~1.0 vs a 1-layered wall <0.5, by having a granular OR and SP with RBs that E. madagascarensis lacks; they also lack a small PG that is present in E. madagascarensis. They differ from those of E. milleri by the shape of the oocyst (spheroid-subspheroid vs distinctly ovoid) and by having an OR that E. milleri lacks.

References: Ford and Duszynski (1988).