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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #369710
Research Project: Plant Feeding Mite (Acari) Systematics

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Catalogue of types of the Smithsonian National Chigger Collection of the National Museum of Natural History

Author
item BASSINI-SILVA, R. - UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO
item JACINAVICIUS, F. - UNIVERSIDADE DE SAO PAULO
item WELBOURN, W. - FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES
item Ochoa, Ronald - Ron
item CREEL, DEBRA
item BARROS-BATTESTI, D. - SAO PAULO STATE UNIVERSITY (UNESP)

Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/1/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There are about 3,300 species of chiggers described worldwide, which are divided into three families: Leeuwenhoekiidae, Trombiculidae and Walchiidae (Acari: Parasitengona). Most of the taxonomy in this group is based on larval morphology, rarely are the postlarval species described. If known that most of type chigger species are deposited in the Smithsonian National Chigger Collection of the National Museum of Natural History and located at the Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL), USDA, Beltsville, MD. A type catalogue is important understanding the exact dimension of the collection, since it is the most important tool for studies in chiggers. Then, after an examination of the entire collection (more than 55,000 slides), it was possible to identify the material types that counts there. All the slides (types and non-type material) housed in this collection include species described by several Acarologists of the United States, as Drs. H. E. Ewing, G.W. Wharton, I M. Newell, L. Goff, W.A. Brown and J. M. Brennan. Until now, this material comprises approximately 50% of chigger’s types of the world, and the species have never been summarized, since Goff’s catalogue during the 80’s. All slides housed in this collection were examined, and all the information put in a species list, the catalog was made with an updated information on all types housed in this collection. The catalog includes more than 1000 chigger species from all orders of terrestrial vertebrates and many localities worldwide with primary and/or secondary types in the collection. The new catalogue will be very important to future research on chiggers worldwide.