A preliminary report with new records of feather mites (Acariformes: Astigmata) collected from birds ringed at Boğazkent Bird Ringing Station (Antalya, Türkiye)

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 50 - 57, 30.01.2025

Gökhan Eren , Esat Kızılkaya , Hakan Karaardıç , Mehmet Karaca

https://doi.org/10.47121/acarolstud.1544692

Abstract

Feather mites (Astigmata: Analgoidea, Pterolichoidea) are arthropods that live parasitically or commensal on the wing, tail and body feathers of birds. These mites have high host specificity and diversity. Here we studied feather mites collected from birds subjected to ectoparasitic examination during ringing at the Boğazkent Bird Ringing Station (Antalya, Türkiye). Feather mite infestation was detected in 50 of 103 hosts representing 30 species during the study. As a result of microscopic examinations, 16 feather mites were identified, five of which are new records for Türkiye: Dermonoton parallelus (Mégnin and Trouessart, 1884), Gymnolichus secundus Černý and Schumilo, 1973, Proctophyllodes anthi (Vitzthum, 1922), Pteronyssus robini (Faccini and Atyeo, 1981), and Pteroherpus africanus Mironov and Kopij, 2000. Additionally, new host-parasite associations for the feather mite fauna of Türkiye were revealed in the species Dolichodectes edwardsi (Trouessart, 1885), P. clavatus Fritsch, 1961, P. pinnatus (Nitzsch, 1818), and Trouessartia kratochvili Černý, 1979.

Keywords

Acarofauna, avian parasite, bird parasite, first record, host-parasite association

Ethical Statement

Not applicable.

Supporting Institution

There is no fund for this study.

Thanks

The authors are grateful to Dr. Sergey V. Mirorov (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia) for literature support and assistance about identifying of the feather mites. We would also like to thank the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks for providing the necessary permissions for field surveys.

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