Type host: Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl, 1817), Asian pipistrelle.

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: ASIA: Saudi Arabia, Central Region, Riyadh City.

Geographic distribution: ASIA: Saudi Arabia.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: subspheroidal to broadly ellipsoidal; number of walls: 2; wall thickness: 1.2 (1.1-1.3); wall characteristics: outer, light yellow, mammillated, ~2/3 of total thickness; inner, yellow-brown, smooth; L x W: 23.5 x 20.6 (19-26 x 16.5-25); L/W ratio: 1.1 (1.1-1.3); M: absent; OR: present; OR characteristics: a coarse, granular sphere 4.7 (4.3-5.6) that appears membrane-bound (line drawing); PG: 1, spherical. Distinctive features of oocyst: mammillated outer wall and membrane-bound OR.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoites: Sporocyst shape: ovoidal; L x W: 10.8 x 7.5 (10-12 x 7-8); L/W ratio: 1.4; SB: present, nipple-like; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: composed of numerous dispersed, small, homogeneous granules; SP: elongate, with 1 RB at rounded end. Distinctive features of sporocyst: nipple-like SB.

Prevalence: 4/20 (20%).

Sporulation: Exogenous. Oocysts sporulated in 6 d in 2.5% aqueous (w/v) potassium dichromate solution at ~26 C.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

Site of infection: Unknown. Oocysts recovered from feces.

Materials deposited: Oocysts in 10% formalin and photosyntypes of sporulated oocysts in the Parasitological Collection, Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, KSUC No. 107. Hosts were released after they were measured and identified and their feces collected.

Remarks: Sporulated oocysts of this species differ from those of E. macyi in having a bilayered wall and an OR; they differ from those of E. redukeri in having a larger OR as a spherical mass consisting of several globules, a spheroidal PG, and in the number of SR granules. Finally, they differ from those of E. pipistrellus in being smaller in size, broadly ellipsoidal in shape, and in having a mammillated outer oocyst wall, while that of E. pipistrellus is smooth.

References: Alyousif (1999).