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The First Report of the Feather Mite Pseudalloptinus milvulinus (Acariformes: Pterolichidae) from the Black Kite Milvus migrans in Japan

1 Faculty of Science, Toho University, 2-2-1 Miyama, Funabashi, Chiba 274-8510, Japan E-mail: tsukasa.waki@sci.toho-u.ac.jp 2 Department of Parasitology, Asahikawa Medical University, 2-1-1 Midorigaoka-Higashi, Asahikawa, Hokkaido 078-8510, Japan 3 Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, 11-4-1 Ossaka, Noto-cho, Ishikawa 927-0552, Japan 4 Science Research Center, Hosei University, 2-17-1 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8160, Japan 5 Corresponding author


Introduction
The feather mite genus Pseudalloptinus Dubinin, 1956 (Acariformes: Pterolichidae) was initially established in the subfamily Pterolichinae and incorporated mites from birds belong to five orders: Accipitriformes, Falconiformes, Gruiformes, Ciconiiformes and Psittaciformes. Later on, Gaud (1988) reduced the species content of this genus to five species, all of which are associated with host from the family Accipitridae (Accipitriformes). Mironov et al. (2018) recently described one more species associated with the Philippine Eagle Pithecophaga jefferyi Ogilvie-Grant, 1896 (Accipitridae).
Pseudallotinus mites have been reported worldwide, and three of the six species known so far have wide host ranges. Pseudalloptinus aquilinus Trouessart, 1884, the type species of the genus, has been recorded from 14 bird species of three genera in Eurasia (from Europe to Far East) and North America (Trouessart 1884;Dubinin 1956;Philips 2000;Galloway et al. 2014); P. milvulinus (Trouessart, 1884) has been recorded from four species of three genera in Eurasia (from Europe to central Russia ) and Oceania (Dubinin 1956;Philips 2000); and P. odontopus Gaud and Mouchet, 1959 has been recorded from four host species of three genera in Eurasia (India), Africa, and Oceania (Gaud and Mouchet 1959;Gaud 1988;Mayberry et al. 2000;Philips 2000). The three remaining species, P. pithecophagae Mironov, 2018, P. glossocercus Gaud, 1988and P. africanus Gaud, 1988, have been reported only from their corresponding type host species (Gaud 1988;Mironov et al. 2018). Despite of a wide host ranges and geographical distribution of the three former species, mites of the genus Pseudallotinus, have never been recorded in Japan. In 2019, we sampled some feather mites from the Black Kite, Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783), in Japan, and based on morphological characters, the specimens were identified as P. milvulinus. Our study reports this mite species from Japan for the first time and provides it redescription.

Materials and Methods
The Black Kite male, which was road-killed by motor vehicle on a highway in Noto City, (Ishikawa Prefecture, Noto Peninsula, Japan), was sampled for this study. Its feathers were examined with a stereomicroscope to find mites. When feather mites were detected, they were collected with soft brushes or forceps, and placed into 99% ethanol for fixation and preservation. For morphological observations, the fixed mites were mounted on slides in Hoyer's medium. Body parts were measured under a light microscope (OLYMPUS BX50, Olympus) provided with the camera control unit (AdvanCam-U3II, Advan vision). The mites were identified based on Gaud (1988) and Mironov et al. (2018). General morphological terms and leg chaetotaxy follow Gaud and Atyeo (1996) and Mironov et al. (2018); idiosomal chaetotaxy also follows these authors with corrections for coxal setation by Norton (1998). All measurements in the description are in micrometers.
Remarks. The mites collected were identified as Pseudalloptinus milvulinus based on the following combination of characters. In both sexes, setae c3 are lanceolate. In male, the genital apparatus is situated at the midlevel between trochanters III and IV; the terminal membranes are large and occupy entire margin of terminal cleft, the terminal cleft is semi-ovate, approximately as long as wide; ventral setae 4a are closer to g than to ps3; setae e2 are spiculiform, the postgenital sclerite is stirrup-shaped. In female, setae c3 are ca. 6 times longer than wide; ventral setae g are situated posterior to the level of setae 3a; and dorsal setae c1 are situated on the anterior margin of the hysteronotal shield.
Pseudalloptinus milvulinus resembles P. africanus in having similar shapes of terminal membranes, positions of setae g, 4a and ps3 and form of dorsal setae e2 in males. Moreover, in females of these species, genital setae g are situated posterior to the level of 3a, dorsal setae c1 are situated on the anterior margin of the hysteronotal shield, and in both sexes, setae c3 are similar in shape. Males of P. milvulinus differ from those of P. africanus by the following characters: the terminal cleft is semi-ovate with its greatest width being equal to its length (vs. shaped as a low arch, 3-4 times wider than long), setae 4a are closer to g than to ps3 (vs. equidistant), and the postgenital sclerite is stirrup-shaped with parallel lateral sides (vs. convex lateral sides). Female of P. mil-  vulinus differ from those of P. africanus in having setae c3 ca. 6 times longer than width (vs. ca. 4 times in P. africanus).
The Japanese name newly established for the mite refers to the wide leg IV of male, loss of some setae on the dorsal idiosoma and the Japanese name of the Black Kite.

Discussion
This is the first report of the feather mite P. milvulinus and the genus Pseudalloptinus from Japan. This mite had been originally found and described the Red Kite Milvus milvus and also reported from the Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus by Trouessart (1884). After that, P. milvulinus had been reported repeatedly from four species of raptors (the Black Kite, the Red Kite, the Brahminy Kite and the Long-crested Eagle Lophaetus occipitalis) (Radford 1953(Radford , 1958Dubinin 1956;Gaud 1988). Among the records from Asia, this mite has been reported in the Black Kite in the Onon River region in the Trans-Baikal, Russia (Dubinin 1956), which is the closest locality (ca. 2500 km away) from the sampling point of the present study. The worldwide distribution of the Black Kite, except in North and South Americas (Bird Life International 2019; Hoyo 2020), suggests the wide distribution of this mite.
In the Japanese Archipelago, the bird fauna currently includes ca. 600 species (Ornithological Society of Japan 2012). Such a high diverse in a relatively small terrestrial area should provide fine opportunities to study the diversity and geographic distribution of feather mites; however, there are still have been reported and/or described few species of feather mites in Japan (Konno and Asada 1978;Kuroki et al. 2006aKuroki et al. , b, 2009Yamauchi and Kuroki 2009;Kuroki et al. 2020;Waki and Shimano 2020), and some of the feather mites recorded were not identified to species level (Nagahori 2000; Kuroki 2004;Kuroki et al. 2006aKuroki et al. , b, 2009Kuroki et al. , 2020Yamauchi and Kuroki 2009;Yoshino et al. 2013;Taniguchi 2020). Although the ecological impact of feather mites on birds is disputable (O'Connor 1982;Gaud and Atyeo 1996;Doña et al. 2019), the feather mites can also help us to understand the evolution and ecology of their hosts.