The harvest mites (‘Akidani’) of Japan and the Far East and their relationship to the Autumnalis group of trombiculid mites

Abstract

Trombicula tamiyai and T. fujigmo n.sp. are described and figured from Japan and northern Burma respectively; the holotypes are in the U.S. National Museum. The first, unnamed or referred to European autumnalis, has previously been illustrated and discussed by some Japanese authors with T. japonica Tanaka et al., under the term Japanese harvest mites (‘akidani’). Figures of T. japonica are also provided here for comparison. Reared nymphs and adults are reported by the Japanese as unusually elongate for trombiculid mites. Figures of the elongate nymphs are comparable with that given by Hirst for T. autumnalis, the European harvest mite, the adult of which is likewise elongate. Should further data, including rearing, indicate the need for generic separation of this group of ‘harvest mites’ from Trombicula, then Neotrombicula Hirst would apply. Specific characters for other apparently related species are tabulated and discussed.