NO. 6 CHIGGER SUBGENUS GAHRLIEPIA — TRAUB AND MORROW 5/ 



STANDARD MEASUREMENTS IN MICRONS 



^^a>^?°r-3^=^ P^'-" PE IK P^V 



•^ ^ lo 'K 0^ ^^n,c:5 Coxa II SD ASB Tarsus III 



Holotype * S3 78 48 22 160 42 35 38 35 ... 0.43 3.6 



50 specimens: t 



Mean 48 73 44 21 144 z~ 32 34 33 72/53=1-34 0.44 3-47 i-4 



Range + or — 6 10 7 4 22 6 6 6 s 0.09 0.05 0.3 0.07 



• After Fuller, 1952. 



t Based upon material from Malaya (including s paratypes), Assam, and Burma. 



Type material. — Ex Rattiis rattiis diardi (Jentink) (equals Rattus 

 rattus argentiventer, partim? — vide Harrison and Andy, 1951), Ma- 

 laya, Selangor, "Holotype, No. 1932-7-18-22 and paratypes Nos. 

 1932-7-18-23 and 24 in the British Museum (Natural History) ; para- 

 types in the United States National Museum (two specimens, both 

 No. 1056); Molteno Institute, Cambridge, England; King Edward 

 VH College of Medicine, Singapore; and Rijksmuseum van Natuur- 

 lijke Historie, Leiden" (Fuller, 1952). 



Comment and records. — The measurements for Assam and Burma 

 specimens usually were 3 microns less than the mean cited in the above 

 table. However, such specimens were otherwise indistinguishable 

 from typical Malayan G. fletchcri, and occasionally large Assam- 

 Burma individuals and small Malayan ones were noted. All ex- 

 tremes encountered were, therefore, considered merely variants of 

 G. flet chert. 



Cater (1932) pointed out that G. fletcheri is very variable mor- 

 phologically, and stated "since the extremes of variation can be found 

 among specimens of the same cluster and in some cases in the same 

 individual, it would be unjustifiable to form more than one species." 

 Some extent of the individual differences encountered by us can be 

 judged by the range cited in the table of standard measurements 

 above. This surprising variability, fully demonstrable only when long 

 series of specimens are available for study, is believed to have led 

 Womersley (1952) and Radford (1946) astray. The differences 

 Womersley cites (p. 310) to separate G. fletcheri and G. spinulosa 

 do not hold, because even paratype G. fletcheri often have the scutal 

 shape and arrangement and number of scutal setae ascribed to Ma- 

 layan "spinulosa." Radford apparently described G. spinulosa on the 

 basis of one specimen, and there is nothing in the description or meas- 

 urements to separate this specimen from G. fletcheri as we now know 

 it. Fuller (1952) examined the type of each species but discussed 

 only G. fletcheri. In his key to Gateria he treats G. spinulosa as a 

 valid species, separating it from G. fletcheri by virtue of the scutum's 

 bearing only minute punctae instead of the two types found in 

 G. fletcheri. An examination of Fuller's manuscript notes reveals 



