Synonyms: Eimeria himalayanum Ray and Misra, 1941, lapsus calami and species inquirenda.

Type host: Duttaphyrnus himalayanus (Gunther, 1864), Himalayan toad.

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: ASIA: India, U.P. Mukteswar-Kumaun.

Geographic distribution: ASIA: India.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: spheroidal; number of walls: 2; wall thickness: very thin; L x W: 9.2 (7.5-10.5) along broadest diameter; L/W ratio: 1.0; M: absent; OR: absent; PG: absent. Distinctive features of oocyst: sporulation occurs intracelluarly and the thin wall.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoite: Sporocyst shape: naviculoidal (spindle-shaped); L x W: 5.2 x 2.8 (4.5-6.5 x 2.5-3.5); L/W ratio: 1.9; SB: absent; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: globular mass of small granules between SZ; SZ: club-shaped, 4.0 x 1.4, with 1 RB and a centrally-located N with a karyosome. Distinctive features of sporocysts: intracellulat sporulation and sometimes SZ excyst and lie free within the oocyst in the host cell cytoplasm.

Prevalence: 1 of 1 (100%).

Sporulation: Endogenous, strictly intracellular.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

Site of infection: Epithelial cells of intestine.

Endogenous development: The entire life-cycle, including formation of sporulated oocysts, takes place in epithelial cells of the small intestine. Two kinds of meronts were found. Micromeronts measured 1.8 x 2.2 and had a ragged appearance with a faintly developed N membrane, while macromeronts were 5.2 wide with a homogeneous cytoplasm and a prominent N membrane. The smaller meronts were found either distal to the N of the epithelial cell or they passed beyond it toward the basement membrane of the cell to complete merogony. These formed 16–32 merozoites which were 4–6 x 0.4. Mature micromerozoites had a ragged cytoplasm and a deeply staining area at 1 pole. Ray and Misra (1943) believed that these micromerozoites (from their micromeronts) produced the microgamont, which is about 6–8 wide when mature with about 8 microgametes that aggregate around the periphery of the cytoplasm. Microgametes were 2.6 x 0.9, but flagella were not seen. In contrast, the larger meronts have a cytoplasm that stains homogeneously and a central N with a prominent karyosome. Fully developed macromeronts, found below or above the N, were 10–12 wide and contained up to 32 elongate merozoites; these measured 4.3 x 0.7, with a homogeneously staining cytoplasm and a central N with a central karyosome. Ray and Misra (1943) stated that these merozoites produced macrogamonts that were 7–12 x 6–10, and had a spheroidal N, about 3–5, with a karyosome. At this later stage, the nuclear membrane becomes irregular in outline and formed a fertilisation spindle parallel to the long axis of the gamont.

Materials deposited: None.

Remarks: Ray and Misra (1941) first named this species in an abstract for a paper read at the 28th session of the Indian Science Congress, held in Benares in 1941. Technically, of course, this violated the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and made the name a nomen nudum since no species description existed in the published literature and no specimen was deposited in an accredited museum. Two years later they named it as new, again, when they published the name as E. himalayanum. In their published species description, Ray and Misra (1943) describe merogony and sporogony occuring at the same time in this 1 individual. Mandal (1976) gives a sporulation time of 48–72 h, conflicting with the original description of endogenous sporulation (Ray & Misra 1943).