Chiggers of the Genus Helenicula of the Old World Including Descriptions of 9 New Species (Acarina: Prostigmata, Trombiculidae)1

Two new species and new records of chiggers (Acari: Leeuwenhoekiidae, <br />Trombiculidae) from birds in Vietnam

“…(Rodentia: Sciuridae), and Rattus sp. (Rodentia: Muridae); in Thailand, this chigger is reported to occur on birds Gallus gallus (Linnaeus) (Galliformes: Phasianidae), Centropus sinensis (Stephens) (Cuculiformes: Cuculidae), Dicrurus hottentottus (Linnaeus) (Passeriformes: Dicruridae), Pellorneum ruficeps, Pomatorhinus hypoleucos (Blyth) (Passeriformes: Timaliidae), and Hydrornis oatesi (Hume) (Passerifomes: Pittidae), as well as on mammalian hosts Tupaia glis (Scandentia: Tupaiidae), Rattus rattus (Linnaeus) (Rodentia: Muridae), and Prionailurus bengalensis (Kerr) (Carnivora: Felidae) (Nadchatram & Traub 1971).…”

Taxonomy and distribution of African chiggers (Acariformes, Trombiculidae)

“…This species was also recorded in Nepal from Rattus tanezumi Temminck, 1844 (Nadchatram & Traub 1971) and in Thailand from Bandicota indica (Bechstein, 1800) (Chaisiri et al 2016).…”

“…Connections between the African chigger fauna and that of other continents are unclear too. Only eight African species have also been recorded outside the continent: 1) Schoengastiella wansoni was recorded in Kyrgyzstan (Kudryashova 1998); 2) Brunehaldia brunehaldi, in addition to Morocco and Egypt, was found in the western and southern provinces of Turkey (Stekolnikov & Daniel 2012 3) Helenicula pilosa was found in Nepal (Nadchatram & Traub 1971) and Thailand (Chaisiri et al 2016); 4) Neoschoengastia brennani was described from the USA (Kansas and Colorado) and later reported from Africa; 5) Schoutedenichia dipodilli is known from Morocco and Spain; 6) Trisetica aethiopica was recorded from Madagascar (André 1946a); 7) Blankaartia acuscutellaris was originally described from Sumatra and later also recorded from many Asian and European countries (Fuller 1952;Kudryashova 1983;Ripka & Stekolnikov 2006), Cameroon, Central African Republic and Congo; 8) Ericotrombidium geloti was reported by Stekolnikov et al (2016) from dogs in Crimea.…”

Trombidiosis in cats caused by the bite of the larval trombiculid mite Helenicula miyagawai (Acari: Trombiculidae)

“…The scrapings were placed in 10 per cent potassium hydroxide solution for two to four hours at room temperature, and were then mounted on glass slides for microscopic examination. All mites isolated in the scrapings were identified as chigger larvae of H miyagawai by referencing some specific identifying characteristics (Sasa 1956, Nadchatram and Traub 1971).…”

“…H miyagawai is primarily distributed throughout Pakistan, Japan, Korea and China (Sasa 1956, Nadchatram and Traub 1971, Wen 1984, Ree 1990), and characteristically forms larval clusters on the lower parts of vegetation. In the Camp Fuji area of Japan, Hubert (1971) observed that clusters of H miya—gawai consisted of a few to over 100 individuals, clustered at an average height of 5.3 cm (range 1 to 30 cm) above the ground.…”