COCCIDIA OF BRAZILIAN MAMMALS - EIMERIA-MARAJOENSIS N-SP (APICOMPLEXA, EIMERIIDAE) FROM THE ANTEATER, TAMANDUA-TETRADACTYLA (XENARTHRA, MYRMECOPHAGIDAE)

Feces from a juvenile specimen of the anteater Tamandua tetradactyla from Ponta de Pedras, Marajo, Para, northern Brazil, contained three different coccidial oocysts: Eimeria tamanduae Lainson, 1968; E. corticulata Lainson & Shaw, 1990; and a third species previously unrecorded and described here as Eimeria marajoensis n. sp. Oocysts of the latter parasite are spherical to subspherical, 13.9 +/- 1.5 x 13.4 +/- 1.4 (11.1-16.5 x 11.1-16.5) mu-m, shape index (lenght/width) 1.0 (1.0-1.2). The oocyst wall is a single, colorless layer about 0.6-1.0-mu-m thick with no striations or micropyle. There is no oocyst residuum, but a single, round, oval or irregularly shaped polar granule of about 0.75-2.5-mu-m is consistently present. The sporocysts are broadly ellipsoidal, 7.1 +/- 0.7 +/- 5.3 +/- 0.6 (6.0-8.8 x 4.0-5.7) mu-m, shaped index 1.3 (1.2-1.5), with a delicate wall bearing a minute stieda body. No sub-stieda body was visible. The sporocyst residuum consists of some 10-20 rounded granules, lying between the two slightly curved sporozoites which measure approximately 6.5 x 2.0-mu-m. Sporocyst refractile bodies were not discernable.