Seasonal occurrence of larval trombiculid mites by Tullgren's funnel method in Kagoshima Prefecture for three years,with a few references to morphological variations

Abstract

Seasonal occurrence of larval trombiculid mites was surveyed at two adjacent areas using Tullgren’ s funnel method for three years. Larval trombiculid mites were collected every month from April 2004 to March 2007 at two adjacent areas of Aira City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Twenty trombiculid species were collected from soil samples: Leptotrombidium scutellare, L. kuroshio, L. murotoense, L. kitasatoi, L. himizu, L. fuji, L. miyajimai, L. kansai, Neotrombicula mitamurai, Eltonella ichikawai, Miyatrombicula kochiensis, Cheladonta ikaoensis, Doloisia uchikawai, Helenicula miyagawai, Mackiena todai, Neoschoengastia shiraii, Schoutedenichia nagasakiensis, Walchia koshikiensis, W. ogatai and Gahrliepia saduski. Almost all species were collected in February and March, and only seven species were collected in June and July. L. scutellare was the most abundant in number, followed by L. fuji. Therefore, L. scutellare and L. fuji seemed to be the dominant species in the survey areas. The morphological vari- ation of C. ikaoensis was also observed. The scutum of C. ikaoensis was very wide, especially PW much wider than AW, and variable in the number of first post humeral row of dorsal setae