# A correction to De Liberato et al. 2018 Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis (Dubinin, 1956) (Acari: Hypoderatidae) from the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) in Italy

Alvaro Camiña

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

► To cite this version:

Alvaro Camiña. A correction to De Liberato et al. 2018 Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis (Dubinin, 1956) (Acari: Hypoderatidae) from the Eurasian griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) in Italy. Acarologia, 2018, 58 (4), pp.987-988. hal-01940203

HAL Id: hal-01940203

https://hal.science/hal-01940203

Submitted on 30 Nov 2018

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

Acarologia

A quarterly journal of acarology, since 1959
Publishing on all aspects of the Acari

All information:

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/acarologia@supagro.fr

OPEN ACCESS

Acarologia is proudly non-profit,
with no page charges and free open access

Please help us maintain this system by
encouraging your institutes to subscribe to the print version of the journal
and by sending us your high quality research on the Acari.

Subscriptions: Year 2018 (Volume 58): 380 €

http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/CBGP/acarologia/subscribe.php

Previous volumes (2010-2016): 250 € / year (4 issues)

Acarologia, CBGP, CS 30016, 34988 MONTFERRIER-sur-LEZ Cedex, France

The digitalization of Acarologia papers prior to 2000 was supported by Agropolis Fondation under the reference ID 1500-024 through the « Investissements d'avenir » programme
(Labex Agro: ANR-10-LABX-0001-01)

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /></figure>

Acarologia is under **free license** and distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons-BY-NC-ND which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Acarologia

Open Science
in Acarology

# A correction to De Liberato et al. 2018
*Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis*
(Dubinin, 1956) (Acari: Hypoderatidae)
from the Eurasian griffon vulture (*Gyps fulvus*) in Italy

Alvaro Camiñaª

ªACRENASL Apartado de Correos 339, 28220 Majadahonda, Spain.

## Correspondence

A recent paper by De Liberato et al. (2018) describes the finding of *Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis* (Dubinin, 1956) (Acari: Hypoderatidae) in a Eurasian griffon vulture (*Gyps fulvus*). This note clarifies the accuracy of two of their assumptions.

First, De Liberato et al. (2018) assumed that the infested bird was born in Spain. However, there is no evidence supporting this assumption, even when considering the location and date of capture. The bird in question was caught in Renedo de la Vega municipality (42°27'11" N 04°42'09"W), Palencia province, northern Spain on September 25th, 2008, and was released from the Los Guindales rehabilitation center (Saldaña municipality 42°31'05"N 04°44'0"W) after forty-one days. This vulture was then re-captured at the Riserva Naturale Monte Velino by M. Posillico (Pers. Comm.) on January 30th 2012, July 28th and August 4th 2014, demonstrating its presence in Italy. Because the bird was a fledgling when it was initially captured, it is known that this individual was born during the 2008 breeding season. In that year, the Palencia Province hosted between 76-89 breeding pairs in twelve colonies (Del Moral 2009) and it is thus possible that the bird was born in this region. However, throughout its European range, the Eurasian griffon is a partially migratory species, with most juveniles migrating into Africa during their first winter (Bernis 1981). Between fledging and the migration to Africa, there is a post-fledging dependence period during which first year vultures may travel far from their breeding colonies. This vulture could therefore have born in any of the countries where griffon populations still exist, including Portugal, Spain, France, Italy or even Croatia. Indeed, it would not be the first time that griffons born in those countries and ringed as chicks reached the Iberian Peninsula. Among at least 189 griffon vultures ringed abroad and recovered in Spain, 186 were from France, two were from Croatia and one was from Italy. Of the French birds, six (3.17%) were re-sighted in Spain during August (1), September (1) and October (4), two to four months after fledging. Thus, we cannot eliminate the possibility that the mentioned vulture was born outside of Spain, and subsequently joined the Iberian population.

Second, it should also be noted that the vulture in question could have been infested in a cliff used by vultures, rather than on its nest as assumed to be the general case. Vultures roost on cliffs overnight and thus on substrates that could harbor *Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis*. Therefore, it is possible that the infection was acquired subsequent to leaving its nest.

Overall, these remarks do not negate the findings of De Liberato et al.'s study. These authors clearly demonstrate that the hypoderatid deutonymph was present far from where it was originally described and that this observation represents an extension of the known range of this mite. However, the exact location of infestation is questionable given the movements and behavior of the birds. More research is thus called for to determine the current distribution of *Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis*, for example by examining griffon vulture nestlings ringed every year in France, Spain and Croatia.

Received 16 April 2018
Accepted 20 November 2018
Published 30 November 2018

Corresponding author
Alvaro Camiña: acamia@acrenasl.eu

Academic editor
Karen McCoy

DOI
10.24349/acarologia/20184303

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

Camiña A.

Distributed under
Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

OPEN ACCESS
## Acknowledgements

To Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Fomento y Medio Ambiente Dirección General del Medio Natural at Valladolid and Burgos provinces. (Olga Alarcia, Consuelo Temiño and Lorea Cardas). Caleb Gordon reviewed and improved the English version.

## References

* De Liberato C., A. Maglianoa, F. Tancredia, C. Elenia, M. Posillico, S. Mironov. 2018. *Neottialges (Caloenectes) vulturis* (Dubinin, 1956) (Acari:Hypoderatidae) from the Eurasian griffon vulture (*Gyps fulvus*) in Italy: first record in Europe, redescription and pathological changes in the host. *Acarologia* 58(2): 255-264; doi:10.24349/acarologia/20184239

* Del Moral, J. C. (Ed.) 2009. El buitre leonado en Palencia, Spain. In: El buitre leonado en Espa-a. Población reproductora en 2008 y método de censo SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.

* Fernández, J.A., L. Fernández. 1974. Sobre sexo, mecanismos y proceso de reproducción en el buitre leonado (*Gyps fulvus*) Doñana, Acta Vert. 1:109-119.

* Houston, D.C. 1974. Food searching in griffon vultures. E. Afr. Wildl. 12:63-77. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1974.tb00107.x

* Mundy PJ, Butchart D, Ledger J, Piper SE. 1992. The Vultures of Africa. Acorn and Russel Friedman Books, Halfway House, RSA.