Synonyms: Coccidium proprium (Schneider 1881) Schneider 1887; Orthosporo propria Schneider 1881; Pfeifferia (Coccidium) propria Labbé (1896); non Eimeria propria of Matubayashi 1937.

Type host: Triturus cristatus (Laurenti, 1768), Crested newt.

Other hosts: Mesotriton alpestris (Laurenti, 1768), Alpine newt; Lissotriton vulgaris (L., 1758), Common newt.

Type locality: EUROPE: France.

Geographic distribution: EUROPE: France.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: symmetrically cylindrical; number of walls: 2 (line drawing shows only 1); wall thickness: ~0.8; wall characteristics: outer smooth, inner thinner than outer; L x W: 38-41 x 22-24; L/W ratio: ~1.7; M: absent (see Remarks); OR: present; OR characteristics: up to or >22 wide; PG: present (Lavier, 1936); number of PGs: 1. Distinctive features of oocyst: large cylindrical shape with a large OR and a PG often attached to the internal surface of oocyst wall (Lavier, 1936, but not shown in his line drawing).

Description of sporocysts and sporozoite: Sporocyst shape: cylindroid and pointed at both ends; L x W: 18-22 x 7-8; L/W ratio: not given; SB: absent; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: compact ellipsoidal mass of large granules, ~10 x 7, in center of sporocyst; SZ: 15-18 x 2.5, sausage-shaped (line drawing), each with 2 small RBs, one at each end (line drawing). Distinctive features of sporocysts: shaped like a "fat cigar."

Prevalence: Unknown.

Sporulation: Unknown.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

Site of infection: Intestinal mucosa.

Endogenous development: Unknown.

Materials deposited: None.

Remarks: Schneider (1881) was the first to recover cylindroidal oocysts from the digestive tract of 2 salamanders, T. (=Triton) cristatus and L. (=Triton) vulgaris, near Poitiers (France) and he named the oocysts O. propria in a one page note. Later Schneider (1887), abandoned the genus Orthospora that he had created from this cylindrical form, and placed it, and a new spheroidal form (E. spherica), into the genus Coccidium. Labbé (1894a, 1896) considered the two species of Schneider (1881, 1887) to be a single coccidium, the oocyst of which could exhibit a variety of shapes, and called it C. proprium (Lavier 1936). This view prevailed for nearly half a century until Lavier (1936) dispelled it. Steinhaus (1891) described merogony of a coccidium under the name Cytophagus tritonis. In 1896, Labbé placed these intracellular stages and those known from C. proprium into his new genus, Pfeifferia, for no justifiable reasons (Lavier 1936). Schneider (1881) made no mention of a M, but described a structure at one end of the oocyst that he called an operculum; he also described a transverse radial structure (suture?) extending like a belt along the central part of the oocyst; however, Lavier (1936), who redescribed and presented line drawings for E. propria, did not see these structures. The description above follows that of Pellérdy (1974), which differs from the measurements and line drawing given in Doflein (1909). Walton (1941, 1961c, 1964a, b) lists S. salamandra (syn. S. maculosa) as a host for this species and Pellérdy (1974) listed S. atra; these are probably misidentifications. Lavier (1936, 1937) gave oocyst measurements as 36-43 x 20-27 and sporocysts 18–22 x 7–8 (line drawing of sporocyst strongly resembles an oocyst of Monocystis). Although this may represent a different coccidium, all other structural characteristics appear to match those of Schneider (1881).