Research Progress on Leptotrombidium deliense

ABSTRACT

This article reviews Leptotrombidium deliense, including its discovery and nomenclature, morphological features and identification, life cycle, ecology, relationship with diseases, chromosomes and artificial cultivation. The first record of L. deliense was early in 1922 by Walch. Under the genus Leptotrombidium, there are many sibling species similar to L. deliense, which makes it difficult to differentiate L. deliense from another sibling chigger mites, for example, L. rubellum. The life cycle of the mite (L. deliense) includes 7 stages egg, deutovum (or prelarva), larva, nymphochrysalis, nymph, imagochrysalis and adult. The mite has a wide geographical distribution with low host specificity, and it often appears in different regions and habitats and on many species of hosts. As a vector species of chigger mite, L. deliense is of great importance in transmitting scrub typhus (tsutsugamushi disease) in many parts of the world, especially in tropical regions of Southeast Asia. The seasonal fluctuation of the mite population varies in different geographical regions. The mite has been successfully cultured in the laboratory, facilitating research on its chromosomes, biochemistry and molecular biology.