A preliminary study on mite fauna of bird nests in Iran

A survey on mite fauna of bird nests was carried out in Tehran, Golestan and Sistan &Baluchestan provinces in 2008. A total of 18 nests belonging to six bird species, namely Rock Dove Columba livia, House Sparrow Passer domesticus, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler Hippolais (Iduna) pallida, White-eared Bulbul Pycnonotus leucotis, Common Magpie Pica pica and Crested Lark Galerida cristata were collected. Samples were processed by modified Berlese funnel. After extraction, ten mite species from nine families ofthree orders (Sarcoptiformes, Trombidiformes and Mesostigmata) and three suborders (Oribatida, Prostigmata and Monogynaspida) were identified as follow: Acarus siro Linnaeus, 1758, Lepidoglyphus destructor (Schrank, 1781), Suidasia nesbittiHughes, 1948, Acaropsellina sollers (Kuzin, 1940), Cheyletus malaccensis Oudemans, 1903, Cheyletus carnifex Zachvatkin, 1935, Eutogenes foxi Baker, 1949, Tetranychus urticae Koch, 1836, Cenopalpus sp. and Lasioseius penicilliger Berlese, 1916. In this study, the mite fauna were dominated by the species S. nesbitti from the family Suidasiidae and T. urticae from the family Tetranychidae.