Uncommon record of a whip spider (Amblypygi: Charinidae) parasitized by a chigger mite (Parasitengona: Trombiculidae: Leeuwenhoekiinae)

ABSTRACT

This work reports a mite larva of the genus Leeuwenhoekia Oudemans parasitizing an individual of Charinus iuiu Vasconcelos & Ferreira found in a cave of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The mite was found attached between the second and third tergites of the abdomen of the amblypygid. This is the second record of chigger mites of the subfamily Leeuwenhoekiinae parasitizing invertebrates and the third record of a whip spider parasitized by mites.

KEYWORDS:

• Leeuwenhoekia
• Charinus
• Neotropical
• parasitism
• caves

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Rafael Costa Cardoso for providing the specimens collected in the cave. We also thank Danilo Ament for providing a revision of the draft. Authors declare that all experiments comply with the current Brazilian laws, in which the work was performed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

LFOB’s scholarship was provided by CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior). Funding was provided by FAPEMIG (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) to RLF [CNPq grant no. 304682/2014-4].