Trombicula (Trombiculindus) kansai, a New Chigger from Central Honshu, Japan

The subgenus Trombiculindus was established as a genus by Radford (1948) for a species of chigger taken from rats (Rattus sp.) in India. Subsequently, Traub and Evans (1951) described two more species of Trombiculindus from shrews (Crocidura sp. and Suncus sp.) from North Burma. Recently, Womersley (1952, p. 140) named a fourth species of this group; his species was based on specimens found on an unidentified mouse taken in Bal Tal Kashmir, India. The chigger here described is the fifth member of Tromsbiculindus; but, unlike the previously named species, it occurs in temperate regions, far to the north of the known geographic ranges of the other species. We prefer to follow Wharton et al (1951) in using Trombiculindus as a subgenus of Trombicula. Although the foliate setae are strikingly different from the slender, feathered setae of most other species of Trombicula, such a character by itself seems not to be sufficient for the separation of this group as a genus. Except for the foliate setae, these species have the characters of the subgenus Leptotrombidium.