Table 1.

Morphological and morphometrical characteristics from Eimeria wild-derived isolates and reference morphotypes^a.

Species	Oocysts
	Shape	Wall	Micropyle	Polar granule	Residuum	Lenght (μm)	Width (μm)	L/W ratio
E. falciformis	Spherical/Ellipsoidal	Smooth	Absent	Present	Absent	18.62 (15.29–20.76)	15.92 (13.89–17.6)	1.17 (1.00–1.36)
E. falciformis	Ovoid/Spherical	Smooth	Absent	Present	Absent/Present	21 (15–26)	18 (13–24)	1.17 (1.1–1.2)
E. ferrisi	Spherical/Ellipsoidal	Smooth	Absent	Presentb	Absent	17.32 (13.59–21.47)	14 (10.97–17.44)	1.23 (1.02–1.56)
E. ferrisi	Ellipsoidal/Subspherical	Smooth	Absent	Present	Absent	17 (12–22)	14 (11–18)	1.22 (1.0–1.6)
E. vermiformis	Spherical/Ellipsoidal	Smooth	Absent	Presentb	Absent	20.02 (16.22–22.8)	15.57 (12.37–18.44)	1.29 (0.99–1.45)
E. vermiformis	Spherical/Ellipsoidal	Lightly pitted	Absent	Present	Absent	23.1 (18–26)	18.4 (15–21)	1.25 (1.1–1.4)
Species	Sporocysts					Tissue localization	Reference
	Residuum	Refractile body	Stieda body	Lenght (μm)	Width (μm)
E. falciformis	Present	Present	Presentc	8.88 (7.03–10.30)	5.52 (4.16–6.93)	Cecum	This work
E. falciformis	Present	Present	Present	11 (10–12)	7 (6–8)	Ileum, cecum and colon	Eimer (1870); Haberkorn (1970)
E. ferrisi	Present	Present	Present	7.75 (5.17–11.47)	5.03 (2.88–7.73)	Cecum	This work
E. ferrisi	Absent/Present	Present	Present	10.5 (10–11)	5.5 (5–6)	Cecum and colon	Levine and Ivens (1965); Ankrom et al. (1975)
E. vermiformis	Present	Present	Present	8.35 (6.18–11.29)	5.43 (4.19–7.00)	Cecum and ileum	This work
E. vermiformis	Present	Present	Present	12.8 (11–14)	7.9 (6–10)	Jejunum, ileum and cecum	Ernst et al. (1971)

^aMeasurements are means in micrometers with ranges in parenthesis.

^bObserved in more than 80% of the oocysts.

^cPresent but not evident.