Epidermoptidae) in European Russia

The skin mite Promyialges italicus Faradonbeh et al. 2019 (Acariformes: Epidermoptidae) was found on wings of a louse fly, Pseudolynchia canariensis (Macquart, 1840) (Diptera: Hippoboscidae,) from the Domestic Pigeon, Columba livia L., 1758 (Aves: Columbiformes). This is the first record of P. italicus in Russia.


Material and methods
The material (louse flies with mites) was collected in August-September 2020 in Moscow, Russia, from the Domestic Pigeons, Columba livia, died of ornithosis (9 birds), and fixed in 96% ethanol. The mites have been found both on the louse fly Pseudolynchia canariensis wings (12 female mites from 10 louse flies) and on the skin of the recently dead birds (3 female mites). The flies and mites from the skin and feathers of dead birds were collected using the electors (Berlese's funnel) with lightbulb (25 watt) for 3 days. The mites were mounted on slides in Hoyer's medium according the standard technique used for small mites (Evans 1992; Krantz & Walter 2009) and examined with a Keyence BZ-9000 microscope. Mite specimens were identified using the key by Fain (1965) and the original description of P. italicus by Faradonbeh et al. (2019), and fly species based on the keys by Маа (1969) and Doszhanov (1980Doszhanov ( , 2003. The material used in the study is deposited in the collection of the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (Moscow, Russia).

Results and discussion
Of 10 collected Ps. canariensis louse flies (females), 7 carried the epidermoptid mites. On each fly, the females of P. italicus ( Figures 1A-F) were found on the ventral surfaces of the basal parts of wings and surrounded by a wreath of eggs attached to the cuticle around the mite (Figures 2A-C). The number of eggs around P. italicus females varied from 5 to 35 (Table 1).
The louse fly Ps. canariensis is an obligate species-specific ectoparasite of the Domestic Pigeons; it was reported from this avian host in many countries of the Old World: Africa (Congo, Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Zaire), America (Cuba, USA), Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cyprus, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaya, Nepal, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey) and Europe (England) (Maa 1969; Philips & Fain 1991. This louse fly may carry mites of the families Epidermoptidae and Cheyletidae, and rarely chewing lice (Phthiraptera).
According to previous reports, the following mite species have been previously found on Ps. canariensis: ovigerous females of Myialges anchora Trouessart, 1906, M. falconis Fain, 1965, M. lophortyx Furman & Tarshis, 1953, М. macdonaldi Evans, Fain & Bafort, 1963 (Philips & Fain 1991; Feres & Flechtmann 1991; Faradonbeh et al. 2019); non-ovigerous females of Ornithocheyletia hallae Smiley, 1970 (Cheyletidae) (Bilal 2012; Smiley 1970. Although the Domestic Pigeon is widely distributed throughout the world, P. italicus was previously found only in Italy, the country with a warm climate (Faradonbeh et al. 2019). The finding of P. italicus in European Russia shows that this species is widely distributed in Europe, essentially further to the north and east (up to 55º N, 37º E) than was originally known. This Table 1 Numbers of females of Promyialges italicus and eggs in clutches.
fact encourages further studies of distribution of epidermoptids species, which are able to infect domestic and synantropic birds.