Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 23. (Budapest, 1990)

Table 3. Number of birds belonging to four categories of infestation with Diplaegidia columbae. Farmland City no individuals 32 120 several individuals 39 0 several dozens of individuals 36 0 several hundreds of individuals 13 0 One hundred and twenty birds each were collected in both areas throughout 1988. The birds were captured by mistnet in the roofs or by traps at feeding sites. Nestlings and temporary ectoparasites inhabiting nests were not involved in the study. The captured birds were caged for a few days (max. 7) and killed with CO2. Nasal mites (Mesonyssus melloi) were collected by visual examination of the nasal passages. The number of feather-mites (Diplaegidia columbae) was estimated visually, the levels of infestation were categorized as: no mites (0), several (1), several dozens (2), or several hundreds (3) of individuals. Biting lice were collected manually by thorough examination of the plumage. It took at least 10 minutes per bird, or much more in cases of heavy infestation. In fact not all parasites were collected, so the numbers of lice are rather estimations. The identification of louse species was based on the work of ZLOTORZYCKA et al. (1974) and RIBBECK (1972). Mite species were identified according to the works of DUBININ (1951), KRANTZ (1978), MACCHIONI and MARCONCINI (1976), UBEDA-ONTIVEROS et al. (1978) and ZAMUDIO (1988). RESULTS l.M ALLOPHAG A Four species of biting lice were identified during the survey. The prevalence and the mean intensity of the two dominant species, Columbicola columbae columbae (L, 1758) (Fig. 1) and Campanulotes bidentatus compar (Nitzsch, 1838) (Fig. 2) are presented in Table 1. Nine specimens of Bonomiella columbae Emerson, 1957 (Fig 3) were collected in Budapest and one in the farmland area. Twenty-four individuals of Hohorstiella lata (Piaget, 1880) (Fig. 4.) were collected in Budapest.