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Associations between different Laelapidae (Mesostigmata: Dermanyssoidea) mites and small rodents from Lithuania

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Abstract

Associations between species of Laelapidae (Mesostigmata: Dermanyssoidea) mites and small rodents have been studied insufficiently. The aim of this study was to investigate infestation patterns of small rodent species by laelapid mites at six locations in Lithuania. A total of 728 rodents were snap- and live-trapped in various locations during 2013–2016. Eight rodent species were identified, namely Apodemus flavicollis, Apodemus agrarius, Myodes glareolus, Micromys minutus, Mus musculus, Microtus oeconomus, Microtus arvalis and Microtus agrestis. A total of 343 (47.1%) rodents were found to be infested with up to eight species of parasitic mites from the Laelapidae family (n = 1363): Laelaps agilis, Laelaps hilaris, Hyperlaelaps microti, Haemogamasus nidi, Haemogamasus hirsutus, Eulaelaps stabularis, Hirstionyssus sunci and Myonyssus gigas. The dominant species of mite found on rodents was L. agilis (89.1%), found on 43.4% of all hosts. Abundance and mean intensity of infestation with mites varied among species of hosts and were highest for A. flavicollis. We document new geographical and host records for gamasid mites of eight rodent species in Lithuania.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for all their comments and suggestions which have turned out to be especially helpful and improved the overall quality of the manuscript. The authors are grateful to Vaclovas Gedminas for collection of small rodents on the Curonian Spit.

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  1. Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Vileikos str. 8, 44404, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Evelina Kaminskienė, Jana Radzijevskaja & Algimantas Paulauskas

  2. Institute of Parasitology and Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Hlinkova 3, 04000, Kosice, Slovakia

    Michal Stanko

  3. Nature Research Centre, Akademijos st. 2, 08412, Vilnius, Lithuania

    Linas Balčiauskas

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  1. Evelina Kaminskienė
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Kaminskienė, E., Radzijevskaja, J., Stanko, M. et al. Associations between different Laelapidae (Mesostigmata: Dermanyssoidea) mites and small rodents from Lithuania. Exp Appl Acarol 81, 149–162 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-020-00493-3

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