New data on chigger mites (Acariformes: Trombiculidae) parasitizing bats and birds in Africa

Our recent examination of museum collections has produced new data on the taxonomy and distribution of chigger mites parasitizing bat and bird hosts in Tropical Africa. Two new species are described in this article: Hypotrombidium nigeriense sp. n. from two bird species in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Riedlinia (Trombigastia) maritzburgensis sp. n. from the Geoffroy’s horseshoe bat in the Republic of South Africa. An incompletely described species Neoschoengastia mirafra Radford, 1942 was redescribed based on the holotype and additional specimens from Nigeria. A subspecies, Heaslipia gateri africana Vercammen-Grandjean and Audy, 1957, was synonymized with Heaslipia gateri (Womersley and Heaslip, 1943). An undescribed species, Trombigastia wago (nomen nudum), proposed by Vercammen-Grandjean based on specimens collected from the Bates’s slit-faced bat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was found to be identical with R. (T.) maritzburgensis sp. n. An undescribed species, Trombigastia asmaraensis (nomen nudum), proposed by Vercammen-Grandjean based on the specimens collected from an unidentified bat in Eritrea (currently the State of Eritrea), was synonymized with Riedlinia (Trombigastia) mounti (Radford, 1954), described from the same locality. Seven new country records and some new host records have been reported.