NEW RECOEDS AND SPECIES OF LAELAPS AND ALLIED GENERA FROM AUSTRALASIA (ACARI : DERMANYSSIDAE) Robert Domrow* (Plate n) [Accepted for publication 18th April 1973] Synopsis Three species of Laelaps are described from " old endemic " Australian rodents (Miiridae) : L. aella, n. sp., frora Pseudomys gracilicaudatus, L. pammorphus, n. sp., from Zyzomys argurus and Z. woodwardi, and L. spatanges, n. sp., from P. hermannsburgensis and P. delicatulus. The first two, showing a full complement of 39 pairs of setae on the dorsal shield and relatively unmodified peritremes and genitoventral setae, are placed in the nuttalli species-group (hosts bush-rats &c.) rather than in the finlaysoni species-group (35 pairs of setae on dorsal shield ; peritremes and anterior two pairs of genitoventral setae much abbreviated ; hosts " old endemics "). The hirsute third species, with 38 pairs of setae on the dorsal shield, is also readily separable from fhe finlaysoni species -group, and is placed in the newly-defined, monotypic spatanges species-group. Within the nuttalli species -group, L. assimilis, normally a parasite of bush-rats (Rattus fuscipes and 7?. lutreolus), is noted from the " old endemic " Mastacomys, which occurs in intimate ecological connexion with R. lutreolus. This, however, is an example of host-specificity due to the gregariousness, rather than the phylogenetic relationships, of the hosts. One new host is listed for L. mackerrasi, and additional figures are given for L. rothschildi to facilitate comparison with L. aella. New locality records are given for L. nuttalli and L. echidninus. L. hapaloti, the sole member of the hapaloti species-group (37 pairs of setae on dorsal shield, basal seta on coxa I spinose as in no other Australian species) is refigured and shown to be confined to " old endemic " hopping-mice of the genus Notomys, two species of which are listed as new hosts. Australolaelaps rosamondae, n. sp., is figured and described from the swamp wallaby, Wallabia bicolor (Macropodidae), in Victoria. It shows the peritremes obsolescent as in the one known species {A. mitchelli) from Macropodinae, but coxa II carries an immense hook as in the two known species from Potoroinae : A. greeni and A. validipes. New hosts and records are detailed for 20 species of 12 other dermanyssid genera {Gymno-laelaps, Laelapsella, Mesolaelaps, Haemolaelaps, Neolaelaps, Domrownyssus, Eulaelaps, Raillieita, Bewsiella, Ornithonyssus, Rallinyssus, and Larinyssus). Introduction Recent accessions have yielded the four new species of dermanyssid mites from Australian mammals described below. To facilitate their discussion, several new host-records for related parasites are also detailed. Infestations of captive, as distinct from wild, animals are noted. The morphological terms used are largely those of Evans and Till (1965) and Lindquist and Evans (1965), while the hosts are listed after Ride (1970) and Leach [1958]. To avoid repetition, the illustrations (on which one division on the scales =100 [x) are generally arranged as follows (the few exceptions are obvious). The leading edge of the legs faces the top of the page, and the dorsal view is figured above the ventral. The capitula are drawn in ventral view, with the right palp shown dorsally. Genus Gymnolaelaps Berlese Gymnolaelaps Berlese, 1916, Bedia, 12 : 170. Type-species Laelaps myrme-cophilus Berlese, 1892. * Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, Vol. 98, Part 2
BioStor
