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

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: EUROPE: Hungary.

Geographic distribution: EUROPE: Austria, Bulgaria, England, Hungary.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: subspheroid to ellipsoid; number of walls: 2; wall thickness: <1.0; wall characteristics: outer layer smooth, ~1/3 of total thickness; L x W: 14.3 x 9.6 (12-19 x 6-13); L/W ratio: 1.5 (1.2-1.9); M: absent; OR: absent; PG: present or absent. Distinctive features of oocyst: small size and thin wall.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoites: Sporocyst shape: ovoid; L x W: 9.4 x 5.7 (6-13 x 4-8); L/W ratio: 1.7 (1.3-2.1); SB: present; SSB: present, about equal in width to SB; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: composed of many scattered, spheroid globules; SP: with central RB. Distinctive features of sporocyst: conspicuous, rounded SB.

Prevalence: 5/5 (100%) moles from Hungary (Pellérdy and Tanyi, 1968); 1/3 (33%) from Austria (Mahnert, 1972); 4/10 (40%) from Sreburna Reserve, Bulgaria (Golemansky, 1979); 21/33 (64%) moles from 5 localities in England (Duszynski and Wattam, 1988)

Sporulation: Exogenous. Pellérdy and Tanyi (1968) found that oocysts derived from the liver took ~2 weeks to sporulate in 2.5% aqueous (w/v) potassium dichromate solution.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

Site of infection: Micro- and macrogametocytes both were found "in intracellular position, occupying the inter-spaces between the epithelial cells constituting the walls of the biliary capillaries" of moles in Hungary (Pellérdy and Tanyi, 1968); merogonous stages have yet to be described.

Materials deposited: Photosyntypes in the USNPC No. 85988.

Remarks: The description here is mainly from Duszynski and Wattam (1988), who studied English moles and saw oocysts that differed in several respects from those described first by Pellérdy and Tanyi (1968). First, oocysts from English moles were generally ellipsoid and not "asymmetrical bodies that tapered towards both ends" and, second, the sporocysts had a SSB not reported in the original description. Pellérdy (1969), in a brief review, reported the oocysts of C. talpae were 15-18 x 20-21, but the latter seems to be an obvious typographical error.

References: Pellérdy and Tanyi (1968); Pellérdy (1969); Mahnert (1972); Golemansky (1979); Duszynski and Wattam (1988).