Feather mites (Acari, Astigmata) from Azorean passerines (Aves, Passeriformes): lower species richness compared to European mainland.

Roberto Resendes,Pedro Rodrigues,Sergey Mironov,Ivan Literak,Oldrich Sychra

doi:10.1051/parasite/2015009

Roberto Resendes, Pedro Rodrigues + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2015009

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Abstract

Ten passerine species were examined on three islands of the Azores (North Atlantic) during 2013 and 2014 in order to identify their feather mite assemblages. We recorded 19 feather mite species belonging to four families of the superfamily Analgoidea (Analgidae, Proctophyllodidae, Psoroptoididae and Trouessartiidae). A high prevalence of feather mite species was recorded on the majority of the examined host species. Only three passerine species (Sylvia atricapilla, Regulus regulus and Serinus canaria) presented the same full complex of mite species as commonly occurs in the plumage of their closest relatives in continental Europe. Passer domesticus presented the same limited fauna of feather mites living in the plumage as do its co-specifics in continental Europe. Carduelis carduelis bears the same feather mite species as do most of its continental populations in Europe, but it lacks one mite species occurring on this host in Egypt. Turdus merula, Pyrrhula murina and Fringilla coelebs are missing several mite species common to their continental relatives. This diminution could be explained by the founder effect, whereby a limited number of colonizing individuals did not transport the full set of feather mite species, or by the extinction of some mite species after initially having reached the Azores. The only individual of Motacilla cinerea sampled in this study presented a new host record for the mite species Trouessartia jedliczkai.

Highlights

Feather mites comprise a group of psoroptidian mites (Acariformes: Astigmata) with roughly 2600 currently accepted species arranged in 36–38 families and two superfamilies, Analgoidea and Pterolichoidea [16, 28, 30, 34, 36, 45]
Pyrrhula murina and Fringilla coelebs are missing several mite species common to their continental relatives. This diminution could be explained by the founder effect, whereby a limited number of colonizing individuals did not transport the full set of feather mite species, or by the extinction of some mite species after initially having reached the Azores
We report for the first time the presence of 19 feather mite species belonging to four families found on 10 different passerine hosts from three islands of the Azores

Summary

Introduction

Feather mites comprise a group of psoroptidian mites (Acariformes: Astigmata) with roughly 2600 currently accepted species arranged in 36–38 families and two superfamilies, Analgoidea and Pterolichoidea [16, 28, 30, 34, 36, 45] These mites are parasites or commensals permanently living on birds, never leaving their hosts, and highly specialized to numerous and quite different microhabitats on the bird body [7, 16]. Studies focusing on feather mite diversity have been conducted in most mainland countries of the European continent (see Mironov [26, 27] for major references) Such studies are lacking for the Atlantic islands and in particular for the archipelago of the Azores. The study revealed that the assemblage on Sylvia atricapilla gularis (Alexander, 1898) is composed of common chewing louse species to this passerine in Europe and the prevalence of the parasites was much higher in the Azorean host population than in the mainland populations

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