New species of parasitic quill mites of the genus Picobia (Acari: Syringophilidae: Picobiinae) from North American birds.

Abstract

Five new species of the genus Picobia are described and illustrated: (1) P. leucophaeus sp. nov. from the Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla L. (Charadriiformes: Laridae) from Texas; (2) P. troglodytes sp. nov. from the House Wren Troglodytes aedon Vieillot (Passeriformes: Troglodytidae) from California; (3) P. cardinalis sp. nov. from the Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis (L.) (Passeriformes: Cardinalidae) from Texas; (4) P. carpodacus sp. nov. from the Purple Finch Carpodacus purpureus (Gmelin) (Passeriformes: Fringillidae) from California; and (5) P. psaltriparus sp. nov. from the Bushtit Psaltriparus minimus (Townsend) (Passeriformes: Aegithalidae) from Texas. Two avian species from the family Picidae (Piciformes) are recorded as new hosts for P. dryobatis (Fritsch, 1958): the Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens (L.) from Texas and the Ladder-backed Woodpecker Picoides scalaris (Wagler) from California. Additionally, all named species of the genus Picobia with their host associations and distributions are summarized in tabular form.