Taxonomy and distribution of African chiggers (Acariformes, Trombiculidae)

Abstract

Chigger mites of the African continent are reviewed using data acquired from the literature and examination of the collections deposited at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Tervuren, Belgium) and the Natural History Museum (London, UK). All findings for 443 valid chigger species belonging to 61 genera are reported, along with details on their collection locality and host species. Three new synonyms are proposed: Straelensia Vercammen-Grandjean & Kolebinova, 1968 (= Anasuscuta Brown, 2009 syn. nov.); Herpetacarus (Herpetacarus) Vercammen-Grandjean, 1960 (= Herpetacarus (Lukoschuskaaia) Kolebinova & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1980 syn. nov.); Gahrliepia brennani (Jadin & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1952) (= Gahrliepia traubi Audy, Lawrence & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1961 syn. nov.). A new replacement name is proposed: Microtrombicula squirreli Stekolnikov, 2017 nom. nov. pro Eltonella myonacis heliosciuri Vercammen-Grandjean, 1965 (praeocc. Vercammen-Grandjean, 1965). Ninety new combinations are proposed. Keys to subfamilies, genera and subgenera of African trombiculid larvae and diagnoses of these taxa are given.

Chigger mites (Acariformes: Trombiculidae) of Iran

“…The complete guide to this subject was published by Goff et al (1982). The recent monograph on African chiggers (Stekolnikov 2018) includes a shorter compendium containing explanations for all terms used in the present work and equivalents of specific chaetotactic terms used in chigger studies to the common terminology of Prostigmata (Wohltmann et al 2007). Morphological structures of gnathosoma are shown in Fig.…”

A new species of Schoutedenichia Jadin & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1954 from Madagascar and a re-description of S. dutoiti (Radford, 1948) from South Africa (Acariformes: Trombiculidae)

“…For the description, we have used the standard terminology, abbreviations and diagnostic formulae generally accepted in the taxonomy of trombiculids (Goff et al, 1982, Stekolnikov, 2018. All measurements are given in micrometres.…”

“…There are currently nine known species of chigger mites in Madagascar, of which only one, Trisetica aethiopica (Hirst, 1926), has also been found on the African continent. However, most Madagascan chigger species have close relatives in Africa (Stekolnikov & Fain, 2004;Stekolnikov, 2018). A rather large sample of ectoparasites collected from 107 grey mouse lemurs Microcebus murinus (J. F. Miller) in Ankarafantsika National Park by S. E. Kessler and A. F. Hasiniaina included one chigger mite species belonging to the genus Schoutedenichia Jadin & Vercammen-Grandjean, 1954.…”

“…The last checklist of the Trombiculinae prepared by Vercammen-Grandjean (1965) included 61 species of Schoutedenichia, 46 of which were described from the Afrotropical zoogeographical region. Later, many new species were described from Africa (Stekolnikov, 2018), Australia (Domrow & Lester, 1985), India (Fernandes & Kulkarni, 2003), Iran , and other regions of the world.…”

>b<Chigger mites (Trombidiformes: Trombiculidae) of small mammals from Brazil:>/b< morphological studies and investigation of the presence of pathogens

“…Ornithacarus Vercammen-Grandjean 1960Vercammen-Grandjean 1966: 631. Herpetacarus (Herpetacarus) Vercammen -Grandjean 1960: 469;Fernandes and Kulkarni 2003: 366;Chung et al 2015Chung et al : 1249Stekolnikov 2018:65. Arisocerus Brennan 1970Brennan and Reed 1975: 49;Brennan and Goff 1977: 556; syn.…”