Feather Mites Trouessartia trouessarti Parasitic on Great Reed Warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus in Japan and Korea

Abstract

Various external parasites, including louse flies, mallophagans, fleas and mites, are known to infest birds. Of these, feather mites are the most numerous. To date, little research has been performed on feather mite parasitism in Japan and Korea. This research, which was implemented between August 2003 and October 2005, examined 9 individuals of Great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaccus banded and released in Japan (8 individuals) and Korea (1 individual). A sample feather and down feather was collected from each captured bird, and later examined in the laboratory. Parasites present on the feather samples were collected and preserved. Parasites were found on feathers from 4 of the 9 birds. Specific anatomical characteristics of the collected feather mites (Fig. 1) identified the species as Trouessartia trouessarti. This species had previously been recorded from Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Honshu and Kanagawa and Ibaraki Prefectures in eastern Honshu. The records obtained in this research come from Korea, and also from Fukui, Kyoto and Hyogo Prefectures in central Honshu, indicating that T. trouessari may be distributed widely across East Asia. Also, instances of T. trouessari parasitic on Great reed warbler have been recorded throughout most of the bird's range (Table 1). This indicates that T. trouessari may be host specific to the Great reed warbler, or at least to closely related species in the genus Acrocephalus, T. bifurcate has also been recorded as parasitic on birds in this genus, but not on A. arundinaceus.