Laelaps echidninus Berlese, 1887 a: No. 1, figs 1–4, 7.
Laelaps echidninus. — Hirst, 1914: 119, figs 1–3; Oudemans, 1927: 195; Willmann, 1952: 400; Lange, 1955: 326, figs 671, 697; Bregetova, 1956: 106, 116, figs 190, 211; Lange, 1958: 204, pl. LXXIII, B; Tipton, 1960: 292; Strandtmann & Mitchell, 1963: 547, fig. 1; Karg, 1971: 185, figs 198 d, 199 d; Zemskaya, 1973: 141; Domrow, 1988: 837; Nikulina, 1987: 230, 231, fig. 117, 2; Goncharova et al., 1991: 39; Mašán & Fenďa, 2010: 35.
Laelaps berlesei Fonseca, 1938: 104.
Laelaps echidnina.— Evans & Till, 1966: 134, fig. 4.
Echinolaelaps echidninus. — Strandtmann & Wharton, 1958: 72, figs 14, 15.
Echinolaelaps echidninus vitzthumi Turk, 1950: 71; Tipton et al., 1966: 24.
Echinolaelaps flavioi Tipton, 1960: 288 (nom. nov. pro Laelaps berlesei Fonseca, 1938, non Canestrini, 1882)
Echinolaelaps hirsti Turk, 1950: 72.
Echinolaelaps hirsti ceylonicus Turk, 1950: 72. Laelaps pallidus Trägårdh, 1931: 616, figs 145–147.
Type locality. Italia (Toscana).
Type host. Mus decumanus Pallas, 1778 = Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout, 1769).
Principal hosts. Domestic rats of the genus Rattus Fischer, 1803.
Distribution. Virtually cosmopolitan (in tropical and temperate zones). The range of L. echidninus coincides with the range of its principal hosts, Rattus spp. (Strandtmann & Mitchell, 1963; Zemskaya, 1973). In Asiatic Russia, the species has been recorded from Eastern Siberia and the Far East (Amur Region, Sakhalin Island), however, no recordings from Western Siberia are known to date (Zemskaya, 1973; Nikulina, 2004). Although Strandtmann & Mitchell (1963) report this mite from a wide range of hosts, including tupaids, sciurid rodents, and a wide range of muroid rodents, L. echidninus is primarily associated with the cosmopolitan domestic rat species Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus.