Adeleorine coccidia, life cycles involve more than one host; gamonts are found within the erythrocytes and/or leucocytes of vertebrate hosts ranging from reptiles to mammals; genus characterized by the formation of large, polysporocystic oocysts with a substantial oocyst wall within the tissues of an haematophagous invertebrate definitive host (e.g. a louse, dipteran insect, flea, leech, tick, or mite); sporocysts each contain 4 to 16 or more sporozoites; type species Hepatozoon muris (Balfour, 1906) Wenyon, 1926 infects the rat, Rattus norvegicus, and transmitted by a mesostigmatid mite.