MALAYSIAN PARASITES I 
COLLECTIONS MADE IN MALAYA BY THE COLONIAL OFFICE 
SCRUB TYPHUS RESEARCH UNIT* 
By 
J. R. AUDY and J. L. HARRISON 
Contents 
Page 
Introduction i 
A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRY 2 
A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE COLLECTIONS 
The major collecting areas in Selangor 3 
Body Service 6 
Mark-Release experiments 8 
The assemblage of hosts 9 
The assemblage of ectoparasites 16 
Miscellaneous collections 
Abandoned Pineapple Estate, Kota Tinggi, Johore 18 
Reserve near Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan 19 
Islands in the Malacca Straits 20 
Nicobar Islands 21 
Summary 21 
References 22 
Introduction 
The formation and purpose of the Colonial Office Scrub Typhus Research Unit at the 
Institute for Medical Research have already been described (Audy & Harrison 1951). An 
account of the rodents and insectivores collected during 1948 has also been published, in 
collaboration with the U.S. Army Research Unit in Malaya (Harrison & Traub 1950). A 
provisional tabulation of animals and some of their trombiculid parasites was published in the 
Annual Report of the Institute for 1949 (Table 31, pp. 99-101). The present paper brings up 
to-date the lists of hosts which have been collected and studied in Malaya, while it also adds 
details of infestation by various species or groups of trombiculid mites and gives an account of 
the collecting areas and the method of collecting and recording specimens. Gross infestation 
data are given of external parasites other than the trombiculids. 
Between the beginning of 1948 and the end of 1952, a total of 21,151 vertebrates (and a 
number of invertebrates known to be infested by trombiculids) were collected and examined in 
Malaya. A very large number of parasites from these hosts have been collected but only the 
trombiculids have yet been worked out in any detail. Other collections have been made, 
* Now included in the Division of Virus Research and Medical Zoology, Institute for Medical Research. 
