Research Communication

Natural hosts of the larvae of Nuttalliella sp. (N. namaqua?) (Acari: Nuttalliellidae)

Ivan G. Horak, Heike Lutermann, Katarina Medger, Dmitry A. Apanaskevich, Conrad A. Matthee
Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research | Vol 79, No 1 | a405 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/ojvr.v79i1.405 | © 2012 Ivan G. Horak, Heike Lutermann, Katarina Medger, Dmitry A. Apanaskevich, Conrad A. Matthee | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 23 January 2012 | Published: 02 February 2012

About the author(s)

Ivan G. Horak, Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Heike Lutermann, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Katarina Medger, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dmitry A. Apanaskevich, United States National Tick Collection, Georgia Southern University, United States
Conrad A. Matthee, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Abstract

The first collection of unengorged and fully engorged larvae of Nuttalliella sp. (N. namaqua?) from the murid rodents Micaelamys namaquensis, Aethomys chrysophilus and Acomys spinosissimus in Limpopo Province and from M. namaquensis in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, is documented. A total of nine larvae were collected from two M. namaquensis in the Soutpansberg mountain range in the Limpopo Province during April 2009. During the last week of September 2011, 221 larvae were collected from rodents at the same locality and 10 of 48 M. namaquensis, 6 of 12 Ae. chrysophilus and 3 of 14 Ac. spinosissimus were infested. One of the M. namaquensis harboured 53 larvae. Five larvae were collected from two M. namaquensis in the Northern Cape Province. Total genomic DNA was extracted from two larvae and a region of the 18S rRNA gene was sequenced for these. BLASTn searches revealed similarity between these specimens and the Nuttalliella sequences published on GenBank.

Keywords

Mmurid rodents, natural hosts, Nuttalliella sp., larvae

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