title: Mite fauna of German farms.
abstract: Storage mites are important sources of airborne allergens, especially on farms. A mite survey was conducted in the working environments of 121 farms in five regions of Germany. Of 859 samples, 743 (86.4%) contained mites, representing 547,857 astigmatic mites in 723 g of dust and 34,501 prostigmatic mites in 469 g of dust. Dust samples from nine sites of each farm were collected and analyzed. Ninety-three percent of all mites belonged to the order Astigmata (storage- and house-dust-mite species); 35 Astigmata and 14 Prostigmata mite species were identified. According to the abundance and steadiness of the important astigmatic mite species, the following order was found: Lepidoglyphus destructor > Glycyphagus domesticus > Acarus siro > Tyrophagus longior > Blomia tjibodas > Chortoglyphus arcuatus > Thyreophagus entomophagus > Tyrophagus putrescentiae > Euroglyphus longior > Tyrophagus palmarum > Acarus farris > Acarus immobilis > Gohieria fusca. Blomia tjibodas was described for the first time as an abundant species of farms in Germany.
authors.affiliation: University of Paderborn, Germany.
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Franz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Masuch
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Müsken
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Bergmann
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D005858:Germany; D008925:Mites / Q000145:classification*