A checklist of the family Trombiculidae and Leeuwenhoekiidae is presented, containing 63 species in 30 genera of chiggers from 80 different hosts and 146 localities in Brazil. The type locality and depository are provided, including new locality and host records for the country.

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.

Ornithonyssus bursa, known as the “tropical fowl mite”, is a hematophagous mite of domestic and wild birds, occasionally biting humans. Infestation on humans occurs mainly when the abandoned nests are close to homes, or by manipulation of infested birds by humans. In Brazil, this species occurs in the south and southeast of the country. In the present study we are reporting bites on humans, new localities records, host associations, and molecular information of O. bursa.

Trombiculiasis is an infestation caused by larval mites (chiggers) of the family Trombiculidae. Here, we provide the first report on parasitism by the chigger species Eutrombicula alfreddugesi (Oudemans) and Eutrombicula batatas (Linnaeus) in goats and humans on farms in the state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil. Severe itching and dermatitis caused by the chiggers' bites were seen. From a total of 779 examined goats, 214 of them showed clinical signs of infestation, as well as family members of three farms of the region. Most of the cases occurred during the rainy season, from March to September.

Drivers of patterns of ectoparasitism in rodents in patchy Mojave Desert wetlands were investigated. A total of 1,571 ectoparasites in Mesostigmata, Trombidiformes, Siphonaptera and Ixodida were collected from 341 rodents (Microtus californicus scirpensis,Mus musculus,Reithrodontomys megalotis,Peromyscus eremicus, andNeotoma lepida) at eleven marshes. Trombiculids accounted for 82.5% of mites, followed by the mesostigmatidOrnithonyssus bacoti(17.5%), with chiggers predominating on voles and harvest mice. There were at least three genera of chiggers (Eutrombicula alfreddugesi,Euschoengastiasp. novel, andBlankaartiasp. novel). Fleas includedOrchopeas leucopus(90.3% of all fleas) andO.sexdentatus(9.7%), and ticks were the novel endemicIxodes mojavensis(82.1% of ticks) andDermacentor similis(17.9%). On all hosts and at all marshes, coverage-based rarefaction sampling was over 96%, indicating coverage sufficient for analysis. Dissimilarities in ectoparasite community structure were driven mainly by chiggers,I.mojavensisandO.leucopus. Northern marshes were dominated by chiggers; central marshes byI.mojavensis; and southern marshes byO.leucopus. Primary determinants of ectoparasite community structure were host species, patch size, and parasite interspecific interactions. Host species richness and environmental factors such as patch distance and water and plant availability were not significantly associated with patterns of ectoparasitism. There were nine (60%) significant negative pairwise associations between ectoparasite taxa and no significant positive relationships.Ixodes mojavensishad the highest number of negative associations (with five other species), followed by chiggers andO.bacotiwith two negative associations each. The study area is among the most arid in North America and supports numerous rare and endemic species in increasingly isolated wetland habitat patches; knowledge of ectoparasite ecology in this region identifies potential ectoparasite vectors, and provides information needed to design and implement programs to manage vector-borne diseases for purposes of wildlife conservation.

Chiggers are ectoparasites of vertebrates and may cause trombiculiasis or transmit pathogens to their hosts. Specimens collected from rodents and marsupials were morphologically identified as Herpetacarus hertigi, Eutrombicula tinami, Kymocta sp., Quadraseta brasiliensis, Quadraseta falconensis, Quadraseta flochi, Quadraseta mackenziei, Quadraseta pazca, Quadraseta trapezoides, Quadraseta sp., Serratacarus sp., and Trombewingia bakeri. These mites were submitted individually to molecular analyses for the detection of bacteria of the genus Coxiella, Hepatozoon and Rickettsia. Samples were positive to Rickettsia only. Obtained sequences for the gltA (350 pb) and ompA (488 pb) genes were identical to “Candidatus Rickettsia colombianensi”, a species previously detected in ticks. In addition, molecular identification of mites based on 18S rDNA sequences are provided for H. hertigi, Kymocta sp., Q. brasiliensis, Q. pazca, Q. trapezoides, Quadraseta sp., and T. bakeri for the first time. This is the first report of the detection of a Rickettsia sp. in chigger mites collected on rodents in Brazil.