Report of a Feather Mite Species (Acariformes: Astigmata) from the Oriental White Stork, <i>Ciconia boyciana</i> (Ciconiiformes: Ciconiidae), Belonging to the Japanese Native Population

In Japan, the native population of the Oriental White Stork Ciconia boyciana Swinhoe, 1873 had been extinct in 1986, when the last captured stork died in a breeding facility. Later on, some wild or bred storks from Russia and mainland China (clear origin unknown) were transported to Japan, and their descendants were repeatedly released into natural fields to establish wild populations in this country. In this study, the feather mite Pelargolichus orientalis Waki, Mironov, and Shimano, 2023 has been collected from a taxidermy specimen of the Oriental White Stork belonging to a Japanese native population and preserved in the Himeji City Science Museum, Japan. Pelargolichus orientalis is the only feather mite species detected and described from the introduced storks bred in a Japanese zoo in our previous study. The present study shows that P. orientalis did occur in the Japanese native host population.