Food and Ectoparasites of the Southern Short-Tailed Shrew, Blarina-Carolinensis (Mammalia, Soricidae), from South-Carolina

Abstract

Food habitats and ectoparasites were examined in a sample of 50 individuals of Blarina carolinensis collected in a hardwood forest on the Coastal Plain of western South Carolina. Both in terms of volume and frequency of occurrence, predominant foods were slugs and snails (Mollusca), the hypogeous fungus Endogone, earthworms (Annelida), and beetle (Coleoptera) adults and larvae. Ectoparasites observed on B. carolinensis included one species of flea (Doratopsylla blarina), one species of beetle (Leptinus americanus), and 25 species of mites, the most frequent being Orycteroxenus soricis, Asiochirus blarina, Echinonyssus blarinae, Haemogamasus liponyssoides, and several species of Pygmephorus.