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Demodex aurati sp.nov. and D. criceti, ectoparasites of the Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Wm. B. Nutting
Wm. B. Nutting
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts
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Extract

A new species, Demodex aurati, is described from the Golden Hamster, Mesocricetus auratus. It differs in both morphological detail and ecological niche from D. criceti present on the same host.

When pieces of heavily parasitized skin were ‘subplanted’ for 100 days no change in morphological features of either D. aurati or D. criceti occurred.

D. aurati is a low grade pathogen, apparently only harvesting the cells of the follicular epithelium.

The life cycle of D. aurati is described.

The presence on one host species of two different species of this genus, which has affinities with demodicids of evolutionally remotely related hosts, poses an interesting problem in species specificity and ectoparasite evolution.

I wish to thank Dr Miriam Shaw, Miss Shirley DiBenedetto and Miss Helen Krause for their excellent technical help, and Dr Lawrence Bartlett and Dr Harold Rauch for perusal of the manuscript and suggestions on project procedure.

This investigation was supported by a research grant E-562 from the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, of the National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 51 , Issue 3-4 , November 1961 , pp. 515 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1961

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References

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