INDO-MALA Y SI AN SCHONGA S TIELLA 
107 
Summary 
In connection with studies on Scrub Typhus in Malaya, North Burma, and India, 9 species 
of chiggers of the subgenus Schongastiella have been collected. Of these, 7 are new and are 
described and illustrated in detail. The commonest species found in Assam and North Burma 
is Gahrliepia ( Schongastiella ) ligula (Radford). This is a characteristic parasite of Rattus in 
scrub terrain, although at times occuring on a variety of rodents, insectivores and carnivores. 
It was rarely collected in or near primary jungle. Gahrliepia ( Schongastiella ) punctata (Radford) 
was collected from 60 small mammals in Assam and North Burma. The great majority of 
hosts of this species were shrews. The only chiggers of this subgenus found in Malaya are 
G. (vS). hipposideros (Audy), G. (S) arona n. sp. and G. (S) birella n. sp. The two latter species 
are unique in possessing an anal plate. The following new species were found in Assam and 
Burma : G. (S) liota, G. erula , G. helata and G. gammonsi. Of these G. erula is a parasite of 
Rattus , while the other three apparently infest shrews. G. kalrata n. sp. was collected from 
a mouse in Kashmir. 
Chiggers of the subgenus Schongastiella are relatively uncommon as compared with such 
trombiculids as Trombicula deliensis Walch, T. fulleri Ewing, and Euschongastia indica (Hirst). 
Despite intensive collecting, involving hundreds of hosts and thousands of chiggers, some of 
the new species are represented only by one to three specimens. This group of mites is 
remarkably uniform insofar as concerns the setae of the palpae and the sensory setae of the 
legs, taxonomic characters of specific value in other genera. 
References 
Andre, M. (1951). Nouvelle espece de Schongastiella (Acarien) d’Afrique Equatoriale. Bull. Mus. Hist, 
nat. Paris., 23, 368-371. 
Audy, J. R. (1947). Scrub typhus as a study in ecology. Nature, Lond., 159, 295. 
Audy, J. R. (1952). Trombiculid mites infesting bats in Malaya, with descriptions of three new species. 
Bull. Raffles. Mus., 24, 132-159. 
Audy, J. R., Thomas, H. M. and Harrison, J. L. (1953). A collection of trombiculid mites from Manipur 
and Lower Burma, 1945-1946. J. zool. Soc. India , 5, 20-40. 
Davis, G. E., Austrian, R. C. and Bell, E. J. (1947). Observations on tsutsugamushi disease (scrub 
typhus) in Assam and Burma. The recovery of strains of Rickettsia orientalis. Amer. J. Hyg., 
46, 268-286. 
Kalra, S. L. (1947). Typhus investigations in the Kumaon Hills, U.P., August to October, 1946. 
Appendix 16 in Audy et al. (1947). Scrub Typhus investigations in South-East Asia. London: War 
Office, Army Medical Directorate. (Mimeographed, see Trop. Dis. Bull. 1948, 45, 62-70.) 
Radford, C. D. (1946). New species of larval mites (Acarina, Trombiculidae) from Manipur State, India. 
Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 116, 247-265. 
Traub, R. and Audy, J. R. (1953). Malaysian parasites : IV. — Species of Trombicula (Acarina Trombi- 
culidae) from Borneo. Stud. Inst. med. Res. Malaya., 26, 45-76. 
Womersley, H. (1952). The scrub-typhus and scrub-itch mites (Trombiculidae, Acarina) of the Asiatic- 
Pacific region. Part I (text), Part II (figs.). Rec. S. Aust. Mus., io, 1-673, plates 118. 
Womersley, H. and Heaslip, W. G. (1943). The Trombiculidae (Acarina) or itch-mites of the Austro- 
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MALA YA, No. 26 , 1953 
