Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1996, Qupperneq 114

118 BLOOD-SUCKING MITE DERMNYSSUS HIRUNDINIS FOUND IN A NEST OF SWALLOW
Fuglafjørður was investigated, but no D.
hirundinis was found in this nest. This may
possibly indicate that the swallows in the
Faroes may not be out of the same popula-
tion but may be individuals coming from
different areas in England, Scotland, Ire-
land or Scandinavia. If they were out of the
same population, the chance of being in-
fected with mites would be very high.
In northem Europe D. hirundinis is
known from Britain (Evans, 1966; Thom-
sen, 1961 (as D. gallinae ?)), Denmark
(Gjelstrup, 1988, unpublished), Schweiz
(Buttiger, 1944), Norway (Mehl, 1978). It
is primarily known from Swallow, House
Martin (Delichon urbica) and swift (Apus
apus).
It has been reported from Europe and
U.S.A. that species of the family Der-
manyssidae is able to transport different
vims and bacteria to their hosts. Since the
mites in different ways may reduce the re-
productive success of their hosts, it might
be usefull to further investigate the occur-
rence of the mite species D. hirundinis in
the Faroes.
Acknowledgement
The Carlsberg Foundation supported the projekt. I am
also grateful to Dorete Bloch, the director of the
Museum of Natural History in Tórshavn for information
about the swallow nest, to Viggo Mahler, a specialist in
Coleoptera, for determination of the beetle to species
level and to Thorkild Munk for the drawing of the beetle
species.
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