5. Laelaps echidninus Berlese, 1887

Laelaps echidninus Berlese, 1887a: No. 1, figs 1–4, 7.

Laelaps echidninus . — Hirst, 1914: 119, figs 1–3; Oudemans, 1927: 195; Willmann, 1952: 400; Lange, 1955: 326, figs 671, 697; Bregetova, 1956: 106, 116, figs 190, 211; Lange, 1958: 204, pl. LXXIII, B; Tipton, 1960: 292; Strandtmann & Mitchell, 1963: 547, fig. 1; Karg, 1971: 185, figs 198d, 199d; Zemskaya, 1973: 141; Domrow, 1988: 837; Nikulina, 1987: 230, 231, fig. 117, 2; Goncharova et al., 1991: 39; Mašán & Fenďa, 2010: 35.

Laelaps berlesei Fonseca, 1938: 104 .

Laelaps echidnina .— Evans & Till, 1966: 134, fig. 4.

Echinolaelaps echidninus . — Strandtmann & Wharton, 1958: 72, figs 14, 15.

Echinolaelaps echidninus vitzthumi Turk, 1950: 71; Tipton et al., 1966: 24.

Echinolaelaps flavioi Tipton, 1960: 288 (nom. nov. pro Laelaps berlesei Fonseca, 1938, non Canestrini, 1882)

Echinolaelaps hirsti Turk, 1950: 72 .

Echinolaelaps hirsti ceylonicus Turk, 1950: 72 . Laelaps pallidus Trägårdh, 1931: 616, figs 145–147.

Type locality. Italia (Toscana).

Type host. Mus decumanus Pallas, 1778 = Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769) .

Principal hosts. Domestic rats of the genus Rattus Fischer, 1803 .

Distribution. Virtually cosmopolitan (in tropical and temperate zones). The range of L. echidninus coincides with the range of its principal hosts, Rattus spp. (Strandtmann & Mitchell, 1963; Zemskaya, 1973). In Asiatic Russia, the species has been recorded from Eastern Siberia and the Far East (Amur Region, Sakhalin Island), however, no recordings from Western Siberia are known to date (Zemskaya, 1973; Nikulina, 2004). Although Strandtmann & Mitchell (1963) report this mite from a wide range of hosts, including tupaids, sciurid rodents, and a wide range of muroid rodents, L. echidninus is primarily associated with the cosmopolitan domestic rat species Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus .