ORIGINAL PAPER Lada Hu˚rkova´ Æ Mohammad Abu Baker Miloslav Jirku˚ Æ David Modry´ Two new species of Eimeria Schneider 1875 (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from the broad-toothed field mouse, Apodemus mystacinus Danford and Alston 1877 (Rodentia: Muridae) from Jordan Received: 20 December 2004 / Accepted: 31 January 2005 / Published online: 11 June 2005 Ó Springer-Verlag 2005 Abstract Coprological examination of 40 Apodemus mystacinus Danford and Alston 1877 from Jordan re- vealed oocysts of three species of genus Eimeria. Two species are described as new. Eimeria zuhairamri sp. n. has broadly ellipsoidal oocysts 29.6 (27.0–34.0)·23.3 (22.0–25.0) lm with distinctly granulated wall and oo- cyst residuum. Endogenous development occurs in jejunum and ileum. Eimeria alorani sp. n. has oocysts 26.9 (23.0–29.0)·19.3 (18.0–22.0) lm with smooth wall and absent residuum. Endogenous development is con- fined to the caecum. The third species, developing in jejunum, has oocysts morphologically indistinguishable from Eimeria uptoni. The identity of E. uptoni and the taxonomy of Eimeria of Apodemus are discussed. Introduction Field mice of the genus Apodemus Kaup 1829 are Pale- arctic murid rodents (family Muridae), 14 species of the genus are distributed from British Islands to Japan (Nowak 1991). The broad-toothed field mouse, Apode- mus mystacinus Danford and Alston 1877, is a nocturnal or crepuscular, small rodent living on Balkan Peninsula, in Asia Minor and in the Near East, distributed south- ward to Mediterranean ecozone of Jordan (Amr et al. 2004). Although several species of Eimeria are known to parasitize members of the genus Apodemus (21 Eimeria spp. in total), there is no species reported from the broad-toothed field mouse (Pelle´rdy 1974; Higgs and Nowell 1991). Here we present a description of two new species of Eimeria originating from A. mystacinus col- lected in Mediterranean oak forests of Jordan and dis- cuss the presence and identity of Eimeria uptoni in this murid host. Materials and methods Origin of the examined animals Specimens of Apodemus mystacinus were collected in 2003 and 2004, during a wider faunistic research focused on the distribution of Jordanian rodents. In 2003, 5 adult specimens were collected by hand, in ancient cel- lars in the Dibbin forest (32°15¢ N; 35°50¢ E). In 2004, additional 35 adults were collected by Sherman’s traps, 19 originating from Dibbin forest (32°15¢ N; 35°50¢ E) and another sixteen from the area around Berqish (32° 25¢ N; 35°46¢ E). Both localities lie in the Mediter- ranean ecozone (sensu Al-Eisawi 1985); Dibbin locality is formed mostly by pine forest (Pinus halepensis with Quercus calliprinos and Pistacia palaestina); Berqish locality is an open evergreen forest dominated by Quercus calliprinos. In both sites, A. mystacinus repre- sents the dominating rodent species with high abun- dance. Additionally, A. flavicollis was recently reported from both sites, although it seems to be rare. Coprological examination and measuring Fresh faeces were collected directly from Sherman’s traps or from a caudal part of the intestine of dissected specimens. The faecal samples were mixed with 2.5% L. Hu˚rkova´ Æ M. Jirku˚ Æ D. Modry´ Department of Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Palacke´ho 1–3, 612 42 Brno, Czech Republic M. A. Baker Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Jordan University for Science and Technology, 3030, 22110 Irbid, Jordan D. Modry´ (&) Institute of Parasitology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branisˇovska´ 31, 370 05 C ˇ eske´ Budeˇjovice, Czech Republic E-mail: modryd@vfu.cz Fax: +42-5-41562262 Parasitol Res (2005) 97: 33–40 DOI 10.1007/s00436-005-1353-3