Halarachne americana Banks, 1899
Caribbean monk seal nasal mite
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct [by implication] (Kenyon, 1977 [extinction of type host]; Furman & Dailey, 1980 [only known from type host]; Rolbiecki et al., 2018 [only known from type host])
Last record: 1899 or before [by implication] (Banks, 1899 [protologue]; Newell, 1947 [re-description based on type material]; Furman & Dailey, 1980 [only type material cited])
Distribution & Habitat
Waters around the Caribbean
Biology & Ecology
The only known host was the now extinct Carribean monk seal (Neomonachus tropicalis) (Banks, 1899; Rolbiecki, 2018).
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Banks, Nathan. (1899). A new species of the genus Halarachne. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 4: 212-214.
Other references:
Adam, P. J. (2004). Monachus tropicalis. Mammalian Species 747: 1-9.
Banks, Nathan. (1915). The Acarina Or Mites: A Review of the Group for the Use of Economic Entomologists. Rep. US Dept. Agric. 108: 1-142.
Dailey, M. D. and Brownell, R. L., Jr. (1972). A checklist of marine mammal parasites, pp. 528-589. In: RIdgway, S. H. (ed.). Mammals of the sea: biology and medicine. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.
Domrow, R. (1962). Halarachne miroungae Ferris redescribed. Pacific Insects 4(4): 859-863.
Ferris, G. F. (1925). On two species of the G. Halarachne (Acarina, Gamasidae). Parasitology 17(2): 163-167. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182000004492
Furman, Deane P. and Dailey, Murray D. (1980). The genus Halarachne (Acari: Halarachnidae), with the description of a new species from the Hawaiian monk seal. Journal of Medical Entomology 17(4): 352-359. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/17.4.352
Kenyon, K. W. (1977). Caribbean Monk seal extinct. Journal of Mammalogy 58(1): 97-98. https://doi.org/10.2307/1379738
Newell, I. M. (1947). Studies on the morphology and systematics of the family Halarachnidae Oudemans 1906 (Acari, Parasitoidea). Bulletin of the Bingham Oceanographic Collection 10: 235-266.
Pugh, P. J. A. (1996). The structure and function of the tarsus I sensillar field in mites of the genus Halarachne (Halarachnidae: Gamasida). Journal of Natural History 30(7): 1069-1086. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222939600770571
Rolbiecki, Leszek, Izdebska, Joanna N., Bidziński, Konrad and Jankowska-Jarek, Martyna. (2018). Nasopharyngeal mites Halarachne halichoeri (Allman, 1847) parasitizing the gray seal Halichoerus grypus (Fabricius, 1791) in the Baltic Sea with notes on other parasitic Halarachnidae associated with marine mammals. Oceanological and Hydrobiological Studies 47(4): 398-404. https://doi.org/10.1515/ohs-2018-0037
Shields, Morgan M., Roth, Tara and Pesapane, Risa. (2024). A pictorial key to the adult and larval nasal mites (Halarachnidae) of marine mammals. ZooKeys 1216: 101-114. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1216.135359
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/1754/halarachne-americana-caribbean-monk-nasal