FEATHER MITES (ACARIFORMES: PSOROPTIDIA) ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMMON CRANE GRUS GRUS (GRUIFOMES: GRUIDAE)

About author:

Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Acknowledgments:

The author thanks Aleksandr V. Matyukhin (A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) for the delivery of crane specimens to the Zoological Institute RAS. This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (project № 125013001089-0).

Annotation:

Four feather mite species have been collected from the Common Crane Grus grus (Gruidae). Of them, Pseudogabucinia malovichkoae sp. n. (Kramerellidae) is described as a new species, and Geranolichis gruis (Trouessart, 1884) (Pterolichidae) is redescribed. Two other recovered species are Megniniella gruophila Mironov and Malovichko, 2023 (Analgidae) and Brephosceles sp. (Alloptidae). The fauna of feather mites recovered from the Common Crane is taxonomically most similar to that recovered from the Sandhill Crane, Antigone canadensis, and includes close species of the same three genera: Brephosceles Hull, 1934, Geranolichis Gaud, 1968 and Pseudogabucinia Černý, 1961. The taxonomy and the species composition of the feather mite genera recovered from the Common Crane are briefly discussed.

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