Macrocheles merdarius (Berlese, 1889)

Negm, Mohamed Waleed, Mohamed, Azza Abdelgawad, Mohamed, B Hosam, B, Mohamed Khalil El-Gepaly & B, Safaa Mohamed Abdelaziz, 2018, Mesostigmata mites (Acari: Parasitiformes) associated with birds and their nests from Egypt, Turkish Journal of Zoology 42 (6), pp. 722-731 : 727

Macrocheles merdarius (Berlese, 1889)

Mites of the family Macrochelidae are predators of dipterous flies, especially the house fly, Musca domestica . They can be identified morphologically by having recurved peritremes, and by the presence of accessory sclerites on lateral margins of the genital shield ( Figure 7). In the present study, only one species, M. merdarius , was reported from chicken manure.

Family Melicharidae

Proctolaelaps pygmaeus (Müller, 1859)

Proctolaelaps Berlese, 1923 is one of the most common genera recorded from the nests of birds ( Halliday et al., 1998). Fend’a et al. (1998) recorded Proctolaelaps pygmaeus (Müller) from the nests of birds in Slovakia. In searching for potential predators to control D. gallinae in the Netherlands, Faraji (2011) recorded a new species of Proctolaelaps inside the nest of the European starling, Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus ( Passeriformes ). Few individuals of P. pygmaeus are reported here from the nests and manure of domestic pigeons, chickens, and Egyptian geese in one locality in the Sohag governorate ( Figure 8).

Family Macronyssidae

Ornithonyssus bacoti (Hirst, 1913)

Ornithonyssus bacoti (Hirst) , commonly called the rat mite, has been involved in several human diseases such as murine typhus, rickettsial pox, tularemia, and plague ( Baker et al., 1956). In Egypt, Salman and Ali (1979) reported O. bacoti in high numbers infesting rats, emphasizing its feeding habit as an obligatory bloodsucking parasite of vertebrates. This species was reported only from manure of turkey birds in Giza (Table).