Sarcoptes minor, Fürstenberg, 1861.
Anus situated on the back, legs short, pedunculated ambulacra broad; living on cats (S. minor var. cati) and rabbits (S. minor var. cuniculi). In cats this mite usually lives in the cervical region, and thence spreads to the ears and head; it usually causes the death of the infected animals; it is easily transferable from cat to cat, is difficult to transmit to rabbits, but once settled on them can easily infect other rabbits. On the other hand, the transmission of the itch mite of the rabbit to the cat does not succeed. In man S. minor induces an eruption that disappears after about a fortnight.
[S. minor, Fürstenberg, 1861 (“Krätzm.,” viii, p. 218), comes in Railliet’s sub-genus Notoedres, 1893 (“Zool.,” ed. 2, p. 660). Canestrini raised this to generic rank in 1894 (Prosp. Acarof., vi, p. 724).
[There are three species: (1) N. notoedres, Mégnin = Sarcoptes alepis, Railliet and Lucet (Compt. rend. Soc. de Biol., 1893, xlv, p. 404), and Sarcoptes notoedres var. muris, Mégnin (Parasitology, 1880, pp. 172–174). This occurs on the black and brown rats and the water-vole.
[(2) N. cati, Hering, 1838 (N. acta. ac. Leop., ii, 18, xliv, p. 605, figs. 9 and 10), = Sarcoptes minor, Fürstenberg (“Krätzm.,” 1861, viii, p. 215). Found on the cat in Germany, France, Italy, and Britain.
[(3) N. cuniculi, Gerlach, 1857, “Krätzm.,” iii, figs. 20, 21. It lives on the rabbit and is found in Germany and France.—F. V. T.]
Fig. 369.—Sarcoptes minor var. cati: on the left, female (lying on its abdomen); on the right, male (lying on its back). (After Railliet.)
The itch mites of domestic animals, which belong to the genera Psoroptes (= Dermatodectes = Dermatocoptes) and Chorioptes (Symbiotes = Dermatophagus), as a rule do not infest and live on man, even when artificially transmitted. It is, however, possible for this to occur. Moniez (“Traité de par.,” 1896, p. 559) mentions that a species of Chorioptes—probably Ch. bovis—had been found on man, as had also Demodex folliculorum. This author also includes Dermatophagoides scheremetewskyi, Bogdanoff (Bull. soc. imp. d. natural., Moscou, 1864, xxxvii, p. 341), which has repeatedly been found on man in Moscow and Leipzig (Zürn, Ber. d. med. Ges., Leipzig, 1877, p. 38), as Chorioptes bovis.