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Updated: Mar 8, 2026
Processing Embryo, Eggshell, and Fungal Culture for Scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: August 16, 2019
A new eimerian (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae), from ornate box turtle, Terrapene ornata (Agassiz) (Testudines: Emydidae)
Chris T McAllister1, Dagmara Motriuk-Smith2, Catherine M Kerr2
1Science and Mathematics Division, Eastern Oklahoma State College, Idabel, OK, 74745, USA. cmcallister@se.edu.
Abstract:
A new species of Eimeria Schneider, 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) collected from an ornate box turtle, Terrapene ornata (Agassiz) from Arkansas, USA, is described. Oöcysts of Eimeria doddi n. sp. are ovoidal to ellipsoidal with a smooth, light to darker brown, bi-layered wall, measure 21.1 × 14.0 µm, and have a length/width (L/W) ratio of 1.5; both micropyle and oöcyst residuum are absent, but a polar granule is present. Sporocysts are ellipsoidal, 9.9 × 6.1 µm, L/W 1.6; the Stieda body is present, but the sub-Stieda and para-Stieda bodies are absent and the sporocyst residuum is composed of small granules in a cluster. Sporozoites have a spheroidal anterior refractile body, a subspheroidal posterior refractile body, and one centrally-located nucleus. This is the third description of an eimerian from the turtle genus Terrapene Merrem and the second from T. ornata. In addition, we report Eimeria ornata McAllister & Upton, 1989 from T. ornata from Texas.
