O. Merkl szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 68. (Budapest, 2007)

All of the chigger mites are oviparous. The peculiarity of chigger mites is the larval parasitism. The concentration and efficiency of larval nourishment are rather high (SHATROV 2000). Nymphs and imagoes are predators of small invertebrates and their eggs. An important feature of host-parasite relations is the choice the area of the host's body by certain species in various groups of ectoparasites. Nevertheless, this question still remains insufficiently investigated for species of most families of parasitic arthropods. The analysis of topical specificity of Ereynetidae mites has shown that these mites are typically located on the ethmoturbinal bone and less often in other areas of the respiratory tract of hosts (ZABLUDOVSKAYA 1994). The gamasid mite Varroa Jacobsoni OUDEMANS, 1904 prefers feeding on the hemolymph under the edge of an abdominal segment of a bee (AKIMOV et al 1988,1993). The rhinonysides of genera Sternostoma BERLESE et TROUESSART, 1889, Sternostomoides BREGETOVA, 1965, Ptilonyssus BERLESE et TROUESSART, 1889, Passer onyssus FAIN, 1960 parasitise the nasal cavity of thrushes (BUTENKO & STANYUKOVICH 1999). GREBENYUK (1966) identified the localisation of 10 species of ticks (Ixodidae) in wild and domestic animals. Larvae of chigger mites of the genus Neotrombicula HIRST, 1925 feed inside the cochlea of rodents, and the species of the genus Leptotrombidium NAGAYO, MlYAGAWA, MlTAMURA et IMAMURA, 1916 parasitise the edge of ears (KHARADOV 1992, MlTROPOLSKAYA 2002). Nourishment of larvae of chigger mites of the genus Eutrombicula EWING, 1938 under the scales on the tail of lizards was published by VERCAMMEN-GRANDJEAN & AUDY (1965). The localisation of two subspecies of chigger mites of the genus Whartonia EWING, 1944 on wings, around the anus, ears and genital tracts of hosts has been documented by VERCAMMEN-GRANDJEAN etal (1965). The habitation of eight species of three genera(WalchiaEWING, 1931, SchoengasiellaHlRST, 1915 andSchoutedenichia JADIN et VERCAMMEN-GRANDJEAN, 1954) in mammals' nasal cavities was also shown (VERCAMMEN-GRANDJEAN 1975). All these studies only describe the presence of feeding, but give neither a quantitative evaluation, nor a species-specificity of parasites on the defined places of the host's body. An exception is the work of KONST

ANTINOV (1995), which contains maps indicating the layout of 22 areas of the cow's body to which 12 species of horse-flies (Tabanidae) were stuck to. In this paper the data of the quantitative calculation of Neotrombicula (Neotrombicula) sympatrica STEKOLNIKOV, 2001 in various places on the host's skin are presented. The features and the regularities of this phenomenon