By: Rositsa Davidova, Viktor Vasilev, Maria Boycheva, Ailjan Dzhevat Key Words: Bird, Nest-box, Astigmata, Prostigmata, Mesostigmata
The mite fauna inhabiting nests of various birds in Bulgaria and the world as a whole not yet been insufficient studied. Data of mites of many species of birds, one of which is Ficedula semitorquata are still scarce. The aim of the present paper is to describe the taxonomic diversity and distribution of astigmatic, prostigmatic and mesostigmatic mites in nests of semi-collared flycatcher in North-East Bulgaria. Differences in the species richness and abundance of mites at studied nest-box plots were assessed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Pairwise comparisons were performed using Tukey´s tests. Twelve species, belonging to seven families of mites (Dermanyssidae, Macronyssidae, Laelapidae, Myonyssidae, Macrochelidae, Cheyletidae and Acaridae) were recorded. 157 (83.51%) of investigating 188 nests were infested with mites and the average abundance per nest was 21.24. The distribution of the found species in the nests and nest-box plots is uneven.
