Falculifer rostratus ( Buchholz, 1869 )

HALLIDAY, R. B., 2023, Prelude to a study of the feather mites of Australia (Acariformes: Astigmata), Zootaxa 5280 (1), pp. 1-73 : 34

Falculifer rostratus ( Buchholz, 1869)

Dermaleichus rostratus Buchholz, 1869: 14 .

Falciger rostratus .—Trouessart 1885a: 69; Trouessart & Mégnin 1885a: 78; Berlese 1897: 64.

Falculifer rostratus .— Canestrini & Kramer 1899: 68; Roberts 1936: 42; Dubinin 1951b: 12; Radford 1953: 211, 1958: 133; Dubinin 1956: 712; Gaud & Till 1961: 217; Seddon 1968: 140; Gaud 1992: 85; Gaud & Barré 1992: 375.

Host and locality in Australia: Lophophaps plumifera , Australia (Trouessart 1885a; Trouessart & Mégnin 1885a); pigeons, Western Australia ( Baron Hay 1948); pigeons, Victoria and Western Australia ( Seddon, 1968); domestic pigeon ( Columba livia ), Australia ( Roberts 1936; Gaud 1992).

Current name of host: Spinifex Pigeon, Geophaps plumifera Gould, 1842 ; Rock Dove, Columba livia Gmelin, 1789 ( Columbiformes : Columbidae ).

Notes: Sweet (1909) and Roberts (1936) reported that the deutonymphs of Falculifer rostratus burrow into the skin of their pigeon hosts. That record was based on a misidentification and erroneous concept that some feather mites can have a deutonymph in their life cycle. Sweet’s illustrations show the deutonymphs of an unidentified species of Hypoderatidae .