Two new species and new records of chigger mites (Acariformes: Trombiculidae) from South Africa

ABSTRACT

Based on a series of collections, two new species are described from South Africa, Kayella bothmai sp. n. and Schoutedenichia finisafricae sp. n., parasitizing Micaelamys namaquensis (A. Smith) in Eastern and Northern Cape Provinces, respectively. The new species of Kayella Vercammen-Grandjean, 1960, recently recorded as Kayella sp., is the first species of this genus on the African continent. The species Schoutedenichia major Vercammen-Grandjean, 1958, which was described from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is for the first time recorded in South Africa and on two species of murid rodents. Full morphometric and meristic data of Microtrombicula squirreli Stekolnikov, 2018 and Schoutedenichia paraxeri Vercammen-Grandjean, 1958, which were recently recorded in South Africa for the first time, are provided.

http://urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F9598A50-9E93-4DF3-B6F1-EB0FDDE6388D

KEYWORDS:

• Chiggers
• Schoutedenichia
• Kayella
• taxonomy
• South Africa
• Rodentia hosts

Acknowledgments

We thank the various landowners who allowed sampling on their properties. K Barnard, L van der Mescht, JC Bothma, CA Matthee and JC Matthee assisted in the field. Several research assistants, K Barnard, JC Bothma, L Stevens and L van der Mescht supported the laboratory work. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their help improving the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research project was supported by Stellenbosch University and The National Research Foundation (NRF)-Incentive Funding (Grant number 85718, to SM). Any opinion, finding and conclusion or recommendation expressed in this material is that of the author(s) and the NRF does not accept any liability in this regard. The identification and description of mites was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Grant No. 122031100263-1, to AAS).