Laelaps algericus Hirst, 1925

Vinarski, Maxim V. & Korallo-Vinarskaya, Natalia P., 2016, An annotated catalogue of the gamasid mites associated with small mammals in Asiatic Russia. The family Laelapidae s. str. (Acari: Mesostigmata: Gamasina), Zootaxa 4111 (3), pp. 223-245 : 227

3. Laelaps algericus Hirst, 1925

Laelaps algericus Hirst, 1925: 57 , fig. 6.

Laelaps algericus . — Lange, 1955: 328, figs 672–674; Bregetova, 1956: 116, fig. 191; Bregetova & Kolpakova, 1956: 187; Lange, 1958: 204, pl. LXXII, G; Strandtmann & Wharton, 1958: 59; Tipton, 1960: 266, figs 24b, 27b, 28f, 32c; Costa, 1961: 37, figs 60–65; Zemskaya, 1973: 142; Senotrusova, 1987: 162, fig. 80; Mašán & Fenďa, 2010: 16, 27, figs 4, 9.

Type locality. Algeria, Tougourt.

Type host. Mus algericus (Thomas, 1902) . The identity of the binomen “ Mus algericus ” is obscure. Possibly, the type specimens of L. algericus were collected from Psammomys algiricus Thomas & Truessart, 1930 = P. obesus Cretzschmar, 1828 (G. Shenbrot, pers. comm.).

Principal hosts. Mice of the genus Mus Linnaeus, 1758 , especially Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758 ( Zemskaya, 1973) .

Distribution. North and Central Africa ( Hirst, 1925; Tipton, 1960), Europe and Siberia (except the northern latitudes), Yunnan Province of Southern China ( Huang et al., 2009). In Asiatic Russia, the species is known from Western Siberia and Transbaikalia (Davydova & Nikol’sky, 1986; Nikulina, 2004), but is a rare mite in Siberia (Davydova & Nikol’sky, 1986).

Remarks. L. algericus is the only species of the genus known to serve as a reservoir host for Yersinia pestis —the causative agent of the plague ( Zemskaya, 1973; Sludsky, 2014).