Tanskul P, Linthicum K J
Department of Entomology, U. S. Army Medical Component, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Phya Thai, Bangkok, Thailand.
J Med Entomol. 1999 Jan;36(1):88-91. doi: 10.1093/jmedent/36.1.88.
Leptotrombidium (Leptotrombidium) imphalum Vercammen-Grandjean & Langston is redescribed and illustrated. Specimens were collected from the rodents Rattus rattus, Rattus losea, and Bandicota indica in Chiangrai Province, northern Thailand. The species was found on hosts collected on dikes at the margins of rice fields and in adjacent fruit plantations and along irrigation canals, especially in areas covered with the grasses Imperata cylindrica (lalang grass) and Saccharum arudinaceum. The etiological agent of scrub typhus, Orientia (formerly Rickettsia) tsutsugamushi has been isolated from L. (L.) imphalum, rodent hosts, and patients who live and work in the same habitats.
