Prelude to a study of the feather mites of Australia (Acariformes: Astigmata) Author HALLIDAY, R. B. text Zootaxa 2023 2023-05-09 5280 1 1 73 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5280.1.1 journal article 54455 10.11646/zootaxa.5280.1.1 a3384e49-2a34-4e14-8651-90cd896e0df4 1175-5326 7912198 E89D81FE-D079-41B7-9FF4-4933D620B89D Falculifer rostratus ( Buchholz, 1869 ) Dermaleichus rostratus Buchholz, 1869: 14 . Falciger rostratus .—Trouessart 1885a: 69; Trouessart & Mégnin 1885a: 78 ; Berlese 1897: 64 . Falculifer rostratus .— Canestrini & Kramer 1899: 68 ; Roberts 1936: 42 ; Dubinin 1951b: 12 ; Radford 1953: 211 , 1958: 133 ; Dubinin 1956: 712 ; Gaud & Till 1961: 217 ; Seddon 1968: 140 ; Gaud 1992: 85; Gaud & Barré 1992: 375 . Host and locality in Australia : Lophophaps plumifera , Australia (Trouessart 1885a; Trouessart & Mégnin 1885a ); pigeons, Western Australia ( Baron Hay 1948 ); pigeons, Victoria and Western Australia ( Seddon, 1968 ); domestic pigeon ( Columba livia ), Australia ( Roberts 1936 ; Gaud 1992). Current name of host : Spinifex Pigeon, Geophaps plumifera Gould, 1842 ; Rock Dove, Columba livia Gmelin, 1789 ( Columbiformes : Columbidae ). Notes : Sweet (1909) and Roberts (1936) reported that the deutonymphs of Falculifer rostratus burrow into the skin of their pigeon hosts. That record was based on a misidentification and erroneous concept that some feather mites can have a deutonymph in their life cycle. Sweet’s illustrations show the deutonymphs of an unidentified species of Hypoderatidae .