[Illustration: FIG. 67.--Life-cycle of _Eimeria_ (_Coccidium_) _schubergi_, Schaud., from the intestine of _Lithobius_. (After Schaudinn.) The infection is caused by a cyst (XX), containing spores, which reaches the intestine of a _Lithobius_, where it discharges the sporozoites (I). II, A sporozoite invading an intestinal epithelial cell; III, intestinal epithelial cell with young trophozoite; IV, intestinal epithelial cell with a globular schizont; V, nuclear segmentation within the schizont; VI, the daughter nuclei arranging themselves superficially; VII, formation of the merozoites; VIII, merozoites that have become free, and which, penetrating into other epithelial cells of the same intestine, repeat the schizogony (II-VIII); IX and X, merozoites which, likewise invading the epithelial cells of the same intestine, become sexually differentiated; XIa, young macrogametocyte; XIb, older macrogametocyte; XIc, mature macrogametocyte (discharging particles of chromatin); XIIa, young microgametocyte; XIIb, older microgametocyte; XIIc, increase of nuclei in the microgametocyte; XIId, the globular residual body around which numerous microgametes have formed; XIIe, an isolated microgamete; XIII, the mature macrogamete surrounded by numerous microgametes and forming a cone of reception or fertilization prominence; XIV, shows the nucleus of a microgamete that has penetrated and fused with the nucleus of the macrogamete (fertilization)--the latter forms a membrane and becomes an oöcyst; XV, XVI, XVII, nuclear segmentation in the oöcyst; XVIII, oöcyst with four sporoblasts; XIX, the sporoblasts transformed into spores, each containing two sporozoites; XX, the cyst introduced into the intestine and liberating the sporozoites by bursting.] The merozoites move in a manner similar to that of the sporozoites. The movements consist either of slow incurvations with subsequent straightenings, or annular contractions along the entire extent of the body. In addition, there are gliding movements similar to those of many gregarines, and brought about in a like manner by the secretion at the posterior extremity of a gelatinous substance that hardens rapidly. The merozoites do not gain the open in the usual way, but are destined to infect still further the same host by actively penetrating into other epithelial cells of the affected organ. Here they continue their growth and may again and again undergo schizogony. In the Infusoria the repeated segmentations finally cease and are renewed only after a conjugation. This is likewise the case with the Coccidia, with the difference that in the latter the two conjugating individuals (gametes) are differently constituted one from the other, whereas in the Infusoria they are almost always similar.