Diplaegidia columbae (Buchholz, 1869)

Eren, Gökhan, Öztürk, Mehmet, Mironov, Sergey V., Nisbet, Hatice Özlem & Açici, Mustafa, 2023, New records of feather mites (Sarcoptiformes: Astigmata) from some birds in Türkiye, Acarological Studies 5 (2), pp. 58-68 : 59

Diplaegidia columbae (Buchholz, 1869)

Materials examined. 4 males and 4 females from flight feathers of the rock pigeon, Columba livia Gmelin, 1789 ( Columbiformes : Columbidae ), Artvin, Türkiye, 14 June 2022, coll. G. Eren; 4 males and 4 females from the same host species, Samsun, Türkiye, 22 February 2022, coll. M. Öztürk.

Remarks. The genus Diplaegidia has included seven species so far, and all of them are associated with birds of the order Columbiformes ( Černý, 1975; Gaud, 1976). Diplaegidia columbae , which we report in this study, has been reported several times from the rock pigeons, Columba livia , and its domestic form, Columba livia domestica , in previous studies in Türkiye ( Merdivenci, 1970). In addition to the studies in Türkiye, D. columbae , has been reported so far on birds of the genera Columba Linnaeus, 1758 and Streptopelia Bonaparte, 1855 in Africa (Gaud 1976), Zenaida Bonaparte, 1838 in North and South America ( Goulart et al., 2011; Grossi and Proctor, 2021) and also on the Columba livia in Europa ( Rózsa 1990). The feather mite, D. columbae , is a potential source of allergens for domestic pigeon breeders or people who have close contact with pigeons (Fernández- Caldas et al., 2020).