Synonyms: Eimeria spherica of Matsubayashi, 1937.

Type host: Cynops pyrrhogaster (Boie, 1826), Japanese fire-bellied newt.

Other hosts: None reported to date.

Type locality: ASIA: Japan, exact locality unknown.

Geographic distribution: ASIA: Japan.

Description of oocyst: Oocyst shape: spheroidal; number of walls: 1; wall thickness: not given; wall characteristics: smooth; L x W: 23-26 x 23-26; L/W ratio: 1.0; M: absent; OR: present; OR characteristics: spheroidal body ~14, composed of a large homogeneous body with several granules seemingly attached at one pole on its periphery (line drawing); PG: absent. Distinctive features of oocyst: large OR with smaller granules attached at one end.

Description of sporocysts and sporozoite: Sporocyst shape: spindle-shaped; L x W: 15.2 x 6.1; L/W ratio: 2.5; SB: absent; SSB: absent; PSB: absent; SR: present; SR characteristics: composed of several scattered granules; SZ: nearly as long as sporocyst with RB at one end and a N in the center. Distinctive features of sporocysts:

Prevalence: 2 of 90 (2%).

Sporulation: Unknown, although Matubayasi (1937) indicated that formation of the SZ in the oocyst were completed in the intestine of the host. However, it remains to be seen if the oocysts sporulate endogenously in the host or exogenously.

Prepatent and patent periods: Unknown.

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

Endogenous development: Unknown. However, Matubayasi (1937) did find “a small number of gametocytelike forms” 8 days after infecting a newt with 1 oocyst, but concluded, “these were too small in number to be examined in stained preparation. Thus the experimental infection resulted in a failure.”

Materials deposited: None.

Remarks: This is the “first type" of oocyst reported by Matubayasi (1937) in T. pyrrhogaster (=C. pyrrhogaster) that he erroneously believed to be E. spherica. However, oocysts of E. spherica are 36 (22–38) in diameter, whereas those of this species are somewhat smaller, and the sporocysts are longer than those of E. spherica.