Chigger

Chigger
Related Category: Zoology: Invertebrates
minute, six-legged, reddish larva of the harvest mite, one of various red bugs widely distributed throughout the world and common in the S United States.

chiggers (Microtrombicula merrihewi)
ticks (Ixodoidea)
chiggers (Trombiculidae)
fleas (Siphonaptera)
beetles (Coleoptera) ...

These mites are similar to terrestrial species that are known as "chiggers". Halacarid mites usually live in association with other vertebrates or on algae, and feed on livng and dead tissue.

ventral scales are large and rectangular. This species seems especially prone to chigger infestations and these will create orange patches on some individuals.

Due to the large amount of time spent in dens, bushy-tailed woodrats are particularly susceptible to ectoparasites such as ticks, chiggers, lice, mites, fleas, cone-nosed bugs, and warble flies [51].

Ticks and mites are the most common external parasites found on reptiles, and can infest lizards, snakes, and chelonians (turtles and tortoises). There are 7 genera of ticks and over 250 species of mites that affect reptiles, including chiggers.

Rehabilitant orangutans in Sumatra were found to have myiasis (fly maggots) infestations, leeches, intestinal parasites (helminth larvae, nematodes, hookworm), ticks, chiggers, scabies; also upper respiratory diseases such as the cold and flu.

Such intimate contact carries risks: they are afflicted with many parasites, including protozoans, worms, fleas, chiggers, mites, and lice. They are a vector for a hantavirus that can cause acute respiratory illness and hemorrhagic fever in humans.

New records of bats from northeastern Kansas with notes on the bat chigger, Euschongastia pipistrelli (Acarina, Trombiculidae). Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 55:312-314. Jones, J. K., Jr., and B. Mursaloglu 1961.

See also: Burro, Diver, Reptile, Snake, Eland