A diagnostic survey of chigger mites (acari: trombiculidae) of wild rodents and soricomorphs in turkey

Abstract

This diagnostic survey of chigger mites of the family Trombiculidae was conducted across 26 provinces of Turkey during 2015 - 2016. A total of eight species of chigger mites from 5 genera were collected from 7 different host species of wild rodents and soricomorphs. The chigger species were as follows: Brunehaldia brunehaldi (Vercammen-Grandjean, 1956), B. bulgarica (Vercammen-Grandjean and Kolebinova, 1966), Cheladonta sp., Kepkatrombicula kudryashovae (Stekolnikov, 2001), K. serbovae (Kolebinova, 1972), Neotrombicula sympatrica (Stekolnikov, 2001), N. vulgaris (Schluger, 1955) and Schoutedenichia krampitzi (Willmann, 1955). The overall prevalence of infestation of the individual, captured rodents and soricomorphs by one or more chigger mites was 12.3% (88/716). The moderately prevalence of chigger species demonstrated in the present study suggests that Turkey is an endemic region for chiggers due to the widespread presence of a number of potential hosts that include rodents and soricomorphs.

Keywords

• chigger
• wild rodent
• soricomorph
• trombiculidae
• turkey