MALAYSIAN PARASITES IV 
SPECIES OF TROMBICULA (ACARINA TROMBICULIDAE) FROM BORNEO 
By 
ROBERT TRAUB and J. R. AUDY 
Recent collections in Borneo 
Three major collections have recently been made of animal hosts and parasites in Sarawak 
and North Borneo as part of the investigation of reservoirs and vectors of disease (entries 41 
and 42 in the synoptic summary by Audy, 1953, this Study , p. 37). In 1950, collaboration 
was arranged between the Colonial Office Research Unit and Mr. Tom Harrisson, Government 
Ethnologist and Curator of the Sarawak Museum. Between May and July, Messrs. 
M. Nadchatram (working on parasites) and Ben Ensoll (collector of animals) of the above unit, 
and Mr. Johan bin Haji Adam, then of the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit, went to Sarawak 
to initiate the collection, the two latter accompanying Mr. Harrisson on an expedition to the 
interior, while Mr. Nadchatram started the base work in the Kuching area. The collection 
from the Kuching area has since been directed by Mr. Harrisson, using funds from the Colonial 
Development and Welfare Research Scheme which is operated by the Colonial Office Unit. 
Regular collecting in Sarawak ceased in 1952, a total of 712 animals having been collected 
with their parasites. 
Two collections have since been made in British North Borneo by joint U.S. Army and 
Colonial Office Unit research teams during the course of studies on noxious animals and infections 
involving animal reservoirs. These investigations were made possible through the financial 
support of the Research and Development Board, Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army. 
The collections were as follows (see Map on p. 61): 
1951 (July- August) : Mostly on Mt. Kinabalu between 4,000 and 10,000 feet 
altitude, from a base at the Tenompok Pass (ca. 4,500 ft.) above the village of 
Bundu Tuhan. A subsidiary collection was made at Menggatal Estate, west 
coastal plain near Jesselton. 
1952 (May-June) : From the above areas and in addition from the forest reserve 
at Beaufort (foothills of west coastal plain south of Jesselton and opposite Labuan) 
and near the village Kabajang (swamp forest) on the Padas river between Beau- 
fort and the sea. On this occasion, a number of trombiculid mites were bred 
to the nymph by Messrs. Nadchatram and Lee Fatt-Hing. 
Descriptions of species of Trombicula 
In the following descriptions, species described in detail are as far as possible used as 
standards of comparison for shorter descriptions of related species. A diagnostic chart is 
added. The palpal setation is indicated by the synoptic “palpal formula” (Audy, 1952), e.g. 
N/N/BbP signifying that the femoral, genual, and dorsal-lateral-ventral tibial setae respectively 
are nude (N) obviously branched or barbed (B), inconspicuously barbed (b), or feathery, 
plumose (P). Accession numbers of type material are shown as for the U. S. Army Medical 
Research Unit (A.M.R.U.), the Colonial Office Research Unit (C.O.R.U.), and the U.S. 
National Museum (U.S.N.M.). The terminology of the sensory leg setae is that of Wharton 
(1948) with the exception that in conformity with the names for the setae on segments other 
than the tarsus, the tarsal “spur” and accompanying “microspur” are here called the “tarsala” 
and “microtarsala” (as suggested by Audy, loc. cit.). 
MALA YA, No. 26, 1953 
