Hirstionyssus ellobii Bregetova, 1956

Hirstionyssus blanchardi — Zemskaya 1955: 358, figs 745–763, non Truessard, 1904.

Hirstionyssus ellobii Bregetova 1956: 177, 187, figs 369–377, 398, 405–409, 449, 451–454, nom. nov. pro Hirstionyssus blanchardi sensu Zemskaya, 1955 non Truessard, 1904.

Hirstionyssus ellobii — Lange 1958: 215, pl. LXXVII (З), pl. LXXVIII (А); Zemskaya 1973: 93; Koroleva 1977: 130, figs 1(2), 5(2); Senotrusova 1987: 74, fig. 36; Mašán & Fend’a 2010: 129.

Echinonyssus ellobii — Tenorio 1984: 267.

Type locality: Not stated. Bregetova (1956) reported H. ellobii from different localities situated within the ranges of its type hosts.

Type series: Unknown (not found in ZIN).

Type hosts: Ellobius talpinus (Pallas, 1770), the Northern mole vole, and E. fuscocapillus Blyth, 1843, the Southern mole vole.

Host range: The mole voles (genus Ellobius) serve as the principal hosts for H. ellobii (Zemskaya 1973). Senotrusova (1987) reported a case of massive infestation of the steppe lemming, Lagurus lagurus (Pallas, 1773), by this mite. Occasionally collected from other species of rodents.

Distribution: The range of H. ellobii coincides with distribution of its host species, the mole voles. The mite was reported from Central Europe to south of Asiatic Russia as well as from various countries of Central Asia— Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (Bregetova 1956; Zemskaya 1973; Senotrusova 1987). In Asiatic Russia, H. ellobii has been recorded in the southwest Siberia (Davydova & Nikol’sky 1986); absent from the Russian Far East (Yudin et al. 1976; Nikulina 1987; Goncharova et al. 1991).

Notes: A subspecies (H. ellobii spalacis Costa, 1961) was described from the Palestine mole-rat, Spalax ehrenbergi Hehring, 1898, from Israel (Costa 1961).