Mesostigmata 87 



human diseases it is probable that many mites will be found to play 

 an essential role. 



Allodermanyssus sanguineus (Hirst) is normally a parasite of small 

 rodents. It also has the habit of occasionally biting man and has been 

 reported from large eastern cities such as Boston, New York, and 

 Baltimore as a human parasite. Recently a new disease, rickettsialpox, 

 was found to be carried by this mite in New York City. The disease 

 was originally confused with chickenpox but intensive work demon- 

 strated that it was new (Huebner 1947). 



Bdellonyssus sylviarum (Canestrini and Fanzago), a typical fowl 

 mite, is known to harbor neurotropic viruses (Reeves et al. 1949). 

 During World War II it was found that Bdellonyssus bacoti Hirst acted 

 as the intermediate host of Litomosoides carinii, a filarial worm that 

 lives in cotton rats. Since the mites, rats, and worms could be readily 

 cultured they were used extensively in investigations on filariasis (Wil- 

 liams and Brown 1945). 



References: 



Anderson, C. R. 1944. Rat mite dermatitis. Acariasis caused by the tropi- 

 cal rat mite, Liponyssus bacoti Hirst, 1914. Arch. Dermatol, and 

 Syphilol. 50(2):90-95. 



Bishopp, F. C. and H. P. Wood. 1939. Mites and lice on poultry. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Farmers' Bull. 801 : 1-25. 



Fonseca, F. da. 1948. A monograph of the genera and species of Macro- 

 nyssidae Oudemans, 1936 (synom. Liponissidae Vitzthum, 1931) 

 (Acari). Proc. Zool. Soc. London. 118:249-334. 



Huebner, R. J. 1947. Rickettsialpox a new disease. Amer. J. Clin. Path. 

 17:970-971. 



Roueche, B. 1950. The alerting of Mr. Pomerantz. MD. 5(3) : 73-82. 



Smith, Margaret G. et al. 1948. Experiments on the role of the chicken 

 mite Dennanyssus gallinae and the mosquito in the epidemiology of 

 St. Louis encephalitis. J. Exp. Med. 87:119-138. 



Williams, R. W. and H. W. Brown. 1945. The development of Litomo- 

 soides carinii filariid parasite of the cotton rat in the tropical rat mite. 

 Science. 102:482-483. 



Phytoseiidae Berlese, 1916 



Figure 65 



Diagnosis: This family includes a rather heterogeneous group of gen- 

 era that is characterized by the shape of the epigynial plate. The plate 



