Dermanyssus americanus Ewing, 1923

Mašán, Peter, Fenďa, Peter, Krištofík, Ján & Halliday, Bruce, 2014, A review of the ectoparasitic mites (Acari: Dermanyssoidea) associated with birds and their nests in Slovakia, with notes on identification of some species, Zootaxa 3893 (1), pp. 77-100 : 79

Dermanyssus americanus Ewing, 1923

Dermanyssus americanus Ewing, 1923: 24 .

Dermanyssus oti Ewing, 1925: 21 . Synonymy by Oudemans (1936).

Dermanyssus americanus .— Evans & Till, 1962: 281; Moss, 1968: 71, 1978: 634.

Taxonomic remarks. This is a clearly recognisable and well-defined species. It has only two pairs of J-setae (J1 and J3) on the opisthonotal portion of the dorsal shield, two pairs of small, suboval plates on the posterodorsal soft integument, and it lacks metasternal setae. These characters cannot be found in any other species that is reliably documented from Slovakia.

Occurrence and habitat. This species is known from Slovakia on the basis of one specimen deposited in our mite collection (see below). It was originally reported as Dermanyssus hirundinis (by Krumpál et al. 2001).

Host distribution. Bird nest: Passer sp. ( Krumpál et al. 2001: as Dermanyssus hirundinis ).

Revised data. Jablunkovské Medzihorie Mts.: 1 ♀, 30 December 1985, Svrčinovec Village, Passer sp.