A REVISION OF THE TAXONOMY AND NOMENCLATURE OF THE EIMERIA SPP. (APICOMPLEXA, EIMERIIDAE) FROM RODENTS IN THE TRIBE MARMOTINI (SCIURIDAE)

All published papers on Eimeria spp. from rodents in the Marmotini Tri be are reviewed and each described species is evaluated in an historic al context (i.e., beginning with the oldest description). Many of thes e species descriptions from marmotine rodents are invalid when conside red within either the spirit or the letter of the International Code o f Zoological Nomenclature. In addition, several previous authors erron eously assumed that Eimeria spp. of this host group were highly host-s pecies specific. Thus, many eimerian species described to infect membe rs of this tribe that were originally found in different hosts are mor phologically indistinguishable, and several of these are considered to be conspecific. The names of those species that were most similar are synonymised and, using the guidelines of the International Code, the species for which the original descriptions were inadequate are consid ered to be species inquirendae (Ride et al., 1985, p. 264). The number of named eimerian species in the Marmotini is reduced from 40 to 26 v alid species; these are E, airculensis, E, beckeri, E, beecheyi, E. be rkinbaevi, E. callospermophili, E. citelli, E. cynomysis, E. desertico la, E. eutamiae, E. franklinii, E. hoffmeisteri, E. lateralis, E. ludo viciani, E. menzbieri, E. monacis, E. morainensis, E, os, E. ovata, E. pseudospermophili, E. spermophili, E. surki, E. tamiasciuri, E. vilas i, E. volgensis and E. yukonensis, and one new name is included. Nine junior synonyms are identified and five species inquirendae and one no men nudum are discussed. Where needed, the identification errors in th e published literature are clarified.