186 VI. MITES ASSOCIATED WITH COPROLITES AND MUMMIFIED HUMAN REMAINS IN NEVADA Frank J. Radovsky George Williams Hooper Foundation University of California Medical Center, San Francisco The original material was provided by R. F. Heizer and L. K. Napton. Specimens were recovered at the Hooper Foundation and referred to me for identification and study by F. L. Dunn and R. Watkins (Dunn and Watkins 1970). Mites were obtained from a coprolite (B-29) taken from a crevice (the "entrance lot") of Lovelock Cave and reconstituted and screened in the Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley (Heizer 1967; Heizer and Napton 1969). A single mite was found in fecal material dissected from the apparently intact pelvis of a mummy found (as Burial #2) at Pyramid Lake site 26-WA-525 in Nevada. Material from the mummy was reconstituted in 0.5% trisodium phosphate solution at the Hooper Foundation. Mites were mounted in Hoyer's medium (Baker and Wharton 1952) and the slides heated for several minutes at 700C to expand the specimens. Preservation is excellent, and the final preparations are comparable to those made with fresh specimens. Radiocarbon dating information is not yet available for either of the fecal samples from which mites were recovered. However, the nature and situation of the material is indicative of prehistoric (i.e., pre-contact) placement (Heizer and Napton, personal communication, 1969). The mites all are inthe suborder Sarcoptiformes and represent three non-parasitic families: Anoetidae, Acaridae, Lardoglyphidae. Mites in these families can be anticipated in the reported situations, because of their generally saprophagous habits and frequent phoretic association with dung- and carcass-invading insects. The phoretic form called the hypopus is in the second nymphal or deutonymphal stage. The hypopus does not feed and lacks mouthparts, but it is relatively resistant to environmental stress and, in the species associated with insects, has a sucker plate functioning as an attachment organ. Three species are represented among the 14 mites recovered from the coprolite. Twelve specimens are hypopi of a Myianoetus species (Anoetidae) (fig. 1). The material is close to M. dionychus Oudemans, 1910 (=M. diadematus Willmann, 1937 = ?M. digitiferus Tragardh, 1904; Scheucher, 1957). M. diony- chus has been reported from numerous caves in Europe where hypopi were asso- ciated with a variety of cavernicolous insects. Scheucher (1957) notes (translated) "I found the deutonymphs on cave flies in the Sophienhohle at Rabenstein (Frankisch Alps). I could easily rear the adults from this loca- tion on feces. In the cave they probably live on bat droppings or on slime and algae." 187 Another anoetid hypopus (fig. 2) was found in the coprolite, resembling Anoetostoma oudemansi Womersley, 1941 (see Hughes and Jackson 1958). A. oudemansi has been reported only in Australia where hypopi were found on the housefly, Musca domestica. The last specimen from the coprolite (fig. 3) is a tritonymph of the family Acaridae. This mite could have been brought to the fresh droppings as a hypopus on an insect and moulted to the following stage before its death. The mites taken from a coprolite sample probably were carried to fresh human feces by coprophilic insects. That is the usual source of such mites in excrement and both the recovered stages (13 hypopi and one tritonymph) and the presumed fecal habitat of the preponderant species are in keeping with this hypothesis. However, anoetid and acarid mites are sometimes ingested with food and passed in the feces, perhaps frequently in most human cultures. It is also possible that a coprolite could be externally contaminated by mites after drying, as through contact with infested bat droppings which overlaid other materials in Lovelock Cave, but the stage composition makes this appear unlikely. A single hypopus of the monogeneric family Lardoglyphidae was found in the materiaL taken from within the pelvis of a mummy. The hypopus represents an undescribed species of Lardoglyphus. The two described species in the genus are L. zacheri Oudemans, 1927, and L. konoi (Sasa and Asanuma, 1951). L. zacheri was originally described from specimens found on hides in South America. L. konoi is a species of economic importance infesting dried sea- foods in Japan and India. Both species were recorded from butcher's offal in England by Hughes (1956, 1961). The same author, who reared the two spe- cies on dried heart muscle, found that hypopi readily attached to larvae of a hide beetle, Dermestes maculatus, and noted that L. zacheri has been collected on larvae of Dermestes lardarius and D. frischii. Dermestes species feed on animal remains in a relatively dry state; some of the larger species found in the arid southwestern United States, e.g., D. maculatus (=D. vulpinus) are com- monly used to deflesh dried animals in making skeletal preparations. Feeding habits of previously known Lardoglyphus species and of dermestids on which the hypopi are phoretic indicate that the Lardoglyphus hypopus from the mummy might have entered the body after it was in an advanced state of dessication but prior to complete mummification. Presence of the mite suggests that the pelvic region of the mumumified individual did not remain intact after death, although it is possible that the mite was ingested or entered through the anus. This has obvious implications in the interpretation of the source of other organisms recoverable from the sample, such as helminths. The new Lardoglyphus is of considerable interest in itself, as the third known species in its family and the first clearly autochthonous record from 188 North America. The hypopus which will be described elsewhere, is close to L. zacheri in most features but has dorsal setation like that in L. konoi and several features differing from both of the other species. The associa- tion of this mite with datable human remains is of acarological significance. It has been suggested that L. zacheri and L. konoi were recently introduced to Europe through commerce (Hughes 1956), a question that would be resolved by evidence of the kind reported here. At least one new species and possibly others are represented by the mites recorded in this study. It might be rewarding to use fresh fecal material and animal carcasses in an attempt to collect mites at the same sites. In addition to supplying additional material for systematic study, the resulting comparative data on the acarine fauna after an extended inter- val could be of value to the anthropologist and the climatologist as well as the acarologist. Figure Captions Figures 1-3 Mites from coprolite (B-29) in Lovelock Cave. Figure 1 Myianoetus sp. near M. dionychus, hypopus, ventral view (0.210 mm). Figure 2 anoetid sp. near Anoetostoma, hypopus, ventral view (0.180 mm). Figure 3 acarid sp., tritonymph (0.218 mm). Figures 4-5 Lardoglyphus, n. sp. hypopus, from fecal material in pelvis of mummy, burial #2, Pyramid Lake Site (0.260 mm). Figure 4 Ventral view. Figure 5 Sucker plate. (All figures photographed under phase contrast. Measurements are for length of body, without appendages or mouthparts, of each mite photographed.) 189 4 5 2 A 190 Bibliography Baker, E. W. and G. W. Wharton 1952 An Introduction to Acarology. Macmillan, New York. Dunn, F. L. 1970 Heizer, R. 1967 Heizer, R. 1969 Hughes, A. 1956 1961 Hughes, R. 1958 nd R. Watkins Parasitological Examinations of Prehistoric Human Coprolites from Lovelock Cave, Nevada. Univ. Calif. Archaeol. Survey, (this volume). .a F. Analysis of Human Coprolites from a Dry Nevada Cave. Calif. Archaeol. Survey, Report 70:1-20. Univ. F. and L. K. Napton Biological and Cultural Evidence from Prehistoric Human Coprolites. Science 165:563-568. M. The Mite Genus Lardoglyphus Oudemans, 1927 (=Hoskikadania Sasa and Osanuma, 1951). Zool. Meded. 34:271-285. The Mites of Stored Food. H. M. Stat. Office, London. D. and C. G. Jackson A Review of the Anoetidae (Acari). Virginia J. Sci. 9 (n.s.): 5-198. Scheucher, R. 1957 Systematik and Okologie der Deutschen Anoetinen. Beitr. Syst. Okol. Mitteleurop. Acarina 1:233-284.