An annotated catalogue of the gamasid mites associated with small mammals in Asiatic Russia. The family Haemogamasidae (Acari: Mesostigmata: Gamasina) Author Vinarski, Maxim V. Author Korallo-Vinarskaya, Natalia P. text Zootaxa 2017 4273 1 1 18 journal article 28695 10.11646/zootaxa.4273.1.1 bc3175fc-8f7f-4b44-9377-d1fd2dfeba84 1175-5326 818303 FED562EC-7139-485D-BB6F-6D18769F47C3 Genus Haemogamasus Berlese, 1889 Haemogamasus Berlese, 1889 : 2 . Dermanyssus Dugès, 1834 : 18 , partim. Hypoaspis G. Canestrini, 1884 : 1569 , partim. Euhaemogamasus Ewing, 1933 : 3 . Groschaftella Přívora & Samšiňák, 1957 : 270 . Terasterna Zhou, Gu & Wen, 1995 : 172 , 175. Type species : Haemogamasus hirsutus Berlese, 1889 . General morphological diagnosis : see Kim et al . (1987) , Mašán & Fend’a (2010: 71). FIGURE 1. Haemogamasus hirsutus , the type species of the genus Haemogamasus (after Berlese, 1889) Remarks . The genus was established by Berlese (1889) to include the single species, Hg . hirsutus from the European mole ( Fig. 1 ). This species has not been found in Asiatic Russia although numerous recordings of Hg . hirsutus from the European part of the former USSR are known ( Nikulina, 2004 ). The most important taxonomic works on the genus are those by Vitzthum (1930) , Bregetova (1949 , 1956a ), Keegan (1951) , Evans & Till (1966) , Allred (1969) , Williams et al . (1978) , Haitlinger (1988) , and Lundquist (1990) . The species of the genus were thought to inhabit all continents, except South America ( Bregetova, 1956a ; Williams et al ., 1978 ; Lundquist, 1990 ), but later records of Haemogamasus from Argentina and Chile have now been published ( Mosquera, 1988 ; Casanueva et al ., 1994 ; Herrin & Sage, 2012 ). The genus includes about 60 species, 12 of which have been recorded in Europe (Mašán & Fend’a, 2010) and nearly 30 species in the former USSR ( Senotrusova , 1987 ; Goncharova et al ., 1991 ). One of these species, Hg . pontiger (Berlese, 1904) , is of almost cosmopolitan distribution, being recorded from the Old World , the Americas , Antarctica and Australia ( Lundquist , 1990 ; Halliday , 2011 ). Ecologically , most species of Haemogamasus are parasites of small mammals and abundant in their hosts’ nests and shelters ( Balashov , 2009 ). In general, these mites are opportunistic parasites able to exploit a wide range of host species ( Bregetova , 1949 ); some of them were collected also from birds and birds’ nests ( Haitlinger , 1988 ; Gwaizdowicz et al ., 2006). Strict host specificity in the genus is rarely observed ( Bregetova & Nel’zina , 1952). Some taxa ( Hg . pontiger ) are regarded as predators ( Halliday , 2011 ), and their relationships with Micromammalia are rather indirect. The role of different Haemogamasus species as vectors of viruses and other pathogenic microorganisms has been elucidated by many authors ( Zemskaya , 1973 ; Yakimenko et al ., 2000 ; Valiente Moro et al ., 2005 ; Žákovská et al ., 2008 ; Mi’tkova et al ., 2015).