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| From Wikipedia by Bugboy52.40 |
Till I acquired copies of gleanings from the ZSL Library archives by Jack Greatrex I had no data of John Romer’s discovery of different animal species in Hong Kong. A duplicate of his curriculum vitae ready a few yr earlier than his loss of life in 1982 confirmed he had found what had been then three new species of one thing solely totally different from, his pursuits in amphibians and reptiles however related together with his work first as rodent management officer after which, extra broadly, as pest management officer for the Hong Kong Authorities.
Rats have parasites and in addition to accumulating fleas discovered on rats, he additionally collected different doable vectors of human illness, the tiny mites known as chiggers or harvest mites—the Trombiculidae, a household of arachnids. After an encounter with the microscopic chigger larvae in Guyana the very considered them makes me itch.
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| Herbert Womersley |
Romer despatched the mites collected from rats to Herbert Womersley (1889-1962) on the South Australian Museum in Adelaide. Womersley—extra on him in a future article—was the established world professional on the Acarina, mites and ticks, and continued to construct a serious assortment on the Museum. He named three species from the specimens Romer provided: Garhliepia romeri, Helenicula hongkongensis, Acomatacarus romeri.
What has occurred extra just lately? Do they nonetheless stand as ‘good’ species or had been they synonyms of beforehand described species? Thankfully I discovered a latest guidelines of world Trombiculids. As an entire they go beneath plenty of frequent names along with chiggers and harvest mites which some reflecting their impact on the human inhabitants or as vectors of human ailments: scrub-typhus mites, scrub-itch mites, crimson mites, sand mites.
The current state of play
The primary named, Garhliepia romeri Womersley 1952 is now Gateria romeri and nonetheless a recognised species. The larva was collected by Romer from a rat acknowledged to be Rattus rattus* in 1950.
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| Womersley’s determine exhibiting the scutum of Gahrliepia romeri |
Womersley H. 1952. The scrub-typhus and scrub-itch mites (Trombiculidae, Acarina) of the asiatic-pacific area. Data of the South Australian Museum 10. Adelaide: South Australian Museum.
The second, Helenicula hongkongensis is now considered a synonymous with the sooner named Helenicula kohlsi, and subsequently invalid. It was collected from Rattus rattus with the situation offered by Romer: The Peak, Center Hole Highway. I’m wondering how the present homeowners of properties there—a number of the most costly on this planet—view their purchases being recorded in perpetuity because the habitat of rats carrying scrub-typhus mite larvae?
Womersley H. 1957. Malaysian Parasites—XXI. A small assortment of larval mites (Acarina, Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae) from rats in Hong Kong. Research from the Institute for Medical Analysis, Federation of Malaya, 28, 105-112.
The third and the opposite eponymous species, named by Womersley in the identical publication, nonetheless stands as Odontacarus romeri.
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In abstract John Dudley Romer has three at the moment recognised species named for him, one frog and two mites, all of which he found in Hong Kong within the Fifties.
…and I’m nonetheless itching.
*I’ve written beforehand of attempting to type out the rats of Hong Kong. The mite larvae that Romer discovered had been described as from from Rattus rattus. Given the present state of information, it’s not doable to state which of the at the moment recognised species in Hong Kong the mite larvae had been obtained from. The selection is between Rattus tanezumi, extra doubtless within the roof of buildings, and Rattus andamanensis, the free-living species on the hillsides.
Nielsen DH, Robbins RG, Rueda LM. 2021. Annotated world guidelines of the Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae (1758– 2021) (Acari: Trombiculoidea), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution. Zootaxa 4967, 1-243. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4967.1.1