Leptus (Leptus) simonettae Haitlinger, 2000 (Trombidiformes: Erythraeidae) parasitizing a soft tick (Ixodida: Argasidae) in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Leptus Latreille is the most diverse genus of Erythraeidae Robineau-Desvoidy, with 275 species (based on larval stage) worldwide described. Their larval stage parasitizes different species of arthropods. Until date, 12 species of Leptus have been registered for Brazil. In this study, we identified for the first time a larva of Leptus parasitizing an adult Ornithodoros soft tick in Brazil. This is the first record of a mite parasitizing an argasid tick, and increases the known number of Leptus in Brazil to 13.

KEYWORDS:

• Parasitengona
• ectoparasite
• Ornithodoros
• Rondônia
• Brazilian Amazon

Acknowledgments

To Gabrielle Ribeiro de Andrade and Maria Cristina Ferreira do Rosário for technical contribution, Valeria Castilho Onofrio, for giving access to Acari Collection of the Butantan Institute, Luciana Almeida Sato from the Laboratory of Cell Biology, Butantan Institute, for providing access to the inverted microscope with differential interferential contrast, and Ryszard Haitlinger for giving access to the collection of Museum of Natural History, Wroclaw University, Poland.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico under the Grant [CNPq no. 377343/2015-3, CNPq no. 377342/2015-7, CNPq no. 454907/2014-1 and CNPq no. 377976/2014-8]; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo under Grant FAPESP no. [2010/51875-9, 2017/01416-7 and 2018/02521-1]; This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.