A CHECK LIST OF THE TROMBICULID LARVAE OF ASIA AND AUSTRALASIA. By Carl E. M. Gtjnther, M.D., B.S., D.T.M. (Syd.), D.T.M. & H. (Eng.), Field Medical Officer, Bulolo Gold Dredging Limited, Bulolo, Territory of Papua-New Guinea. [Read 26th March, 1952.] Synopsis. This is an analysis of 332 references in the literature to 17 7 Trombiculid larvae from Asia and Australasia, including the known and suspected vectors of scrub typhus. The mites are arranged systematically in accordange with the latest opinions expressed in the literature consulted, which runs up till the middle of 1951. Under each species is given a full synonymy, and against each name is set a chronological list of references. Common names, distribution, host and location (where known) of type material are listed. Class ARACHNIDA. Order ACARINA. ACARINIDA Wharton, 1945&; Wharton & Hardcastle, 1946 (laps. cal.). Superfamily TROMBIDIOIDEA. Family TROMBICULIDAE Ewing, 1944. (Ewing, H. E., 1944: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., lvii, 101.) Part I. The Family Trombiculidae in Asia and Australasia. My justification for so arbitrarily excluding from this check list those members of the Trombiculidae which do not occur in Asia and Australasia is that, having spent most of my spare time for some years studying mite typhus, which occurs only in those regions, I have not had the need, nor indeed the time, to study those genera and species which occur elsewhere. In the course of my investigations I amassed a large number of references in the literature of the disease and its vectors. At the same time, for my own convenience, I prepared lists and cross-indices of these references, and it occurred to me that these, enlarged and brought up to date, might be of use to other workers in the same field; the result is this check list. The bibliography is not complete — it could not be — but every reference, however slight, that I have been able to find in the literature, is included. Many of these are of only passing interest, and I have indicated, by putting the authors' names in small capitals, those which I consider to be of greater importance. I can see nothing to be gained by presenting long lists of the full scientific names of the hosts of the various larvae, and I am sure that the amount of information given with each species is enough for all requirements. To secure exact information as to the location of type material is not always easy, and during the recent war many places lost their specimens. Only where I am quite sure that type material remains have I put in such information. May I invite museums holding type material not mentioned in this list to send me information about it, so that I may include it in the supplement I hope to issue later? Work on mites is constantly going on, and there must come a time when a writer has to set a deadline, or his work will never reach publication; I have decided that once I have started the final typing of any Part no further additions or alterations can be included. This may entail some overlapping of current work, the more likely because it often takes months for reprints to reach me here. But so long as any part, whether in its latest systematic placing or not, is as complete and as correct as I can make it at the time of its writing, it will achieve its purpose of serving as a basis for future work.
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