William B. Nutting

Demodicosis of ophthalmic concern.

Hair-follicle mites are the only metazoan organism commonly found in the pilosebaceous components of the eyelid of man. Our study showed that Demodex folliculorum in all stages is found in the small hair follicles and the eyelash hair follicles. This species, in adult and immature forms, consumes epithelial cells, produces follicular distension and hyperplasia, and increases keratinization leading, in eyelashes, to cuffing consisting of keratin and lipid moieties. Demodex brevis (in all stages) is present in the eyelash sebaceous glands, small hair sebaceous glands, and in the lobules of the meibomian glands. Adults and immature forms consume the gland cells in all of these loci and, when infestations are heavy, can affect the formation of the superficial lipid layer of the tear film coacervate. Comparative studies of demodicids from man and other mammals suggest that keratinization, hyperplasia, distension, and melanocyte aggregation may be even more extensive if large populations of D. folliculorum build up in the follicles of the eyelid. Large populations of D. brevis may destroy the glandular cells, produce granuloma in the eyelid, and plug the ducts of the meibomian or sebaceous glands. Further studies may incriminate either or both species, in conjunction with microorganisms, as transfer agents or synergists, or both, in producing ocular disease in man. Prevention and control of these mites must await experimental studies with infested laboratory animals (such as the squirrel monkey, Saimiri sciureus). These mites are probably most vulnerable during transfer stages, when they leave their glandular or follicular habitats.

The medical importance of cockroaches

Cockroaches have great significance for the dermatologic finger nails, and other hard parts of the soles of the feet and palms of the hands, nibbled by [the roaches].’’3 Other community, if only because of the many reports and claims implicating the cockroach as a vector for human disease. reports, dating back to the early 1700s and continuing through the 1900s, confirm that roaches will bite humans,4 This review discusses aspects fundamental to cockroach biology and summarizes some of the basic and clinical although there do not appear to be any reports of someone actually dying from these attacks. One writer described the scientific works which contribute to the claims about roaches. roach as ‘‘a destructive insect to clothes, books, c nevertheless, there is a growing population of at least 3500 Roach oddities named species, which range in length from 5 mm to 90 mm.1 Although one is apt to think of roaches primarily as The current view of the roach appears to have come full circle from being an object of man’s longing to an object pests, far less than 1% of roach species actually cause concern for humans;1 however, some of the early records of most people’s loathing. Roaches have been used in one manner or another to treat about 30 medical conditions of human interaction with cockroaches might lead one to think otherwise. Consider these letters to Nature in 1870, of humans, ranging from boils and indigestion to warts and heart disease.4 Specifically, in the mid-1800s, a powder ‘‘A [sailor] was marked for life by [roaches] on board a ship coming home from Jamaica.’’2 The writer goes on to made from dried cockroaches was recommended as a diuretic;6 however, the efficacy of these concoctions has say, ‘‘I have known bread, &c., in the West Indies uneatable from being run over by the small dark Cockroach...while never been substantiated. While roaches are known to be found in kitchens, in the great pale species...is utterly unbearable.’’2 One might think these were great beasts with which to contend, given cabinets, or on counters, even in the most clean homes, they have also been found in other places. Specifically, the following account, ‘‘In some ships infested with these insects, sailors frequently complain of having their toe and roaches have been reported to crawl into the most incon90

Pathogenesis associated with hair follicle mites (Demodex spp.) in Australian Aborigines

Demodex folliculorum and D. brevis are found in different habitats in the skin: the former in the hair follicles, the latter in the sebaceous glands. Both seem minor pathogens—merely harvesting the cells of their respective habitats. D. folliculorum was found aggregated (all stages) and plugging the follicular orifices; D. brevis, on the other hand, was usually solitary. In one case marked degeneration of the sebaceous gland, with leukocyte invasion, was associated with D. brevis.

Hair follicle mites (Acari: Demodicidae) from Australian Aborigines.

Demodex folliculorum and D. brevis have been found in taken from full‐blood Australian Aborigines. The incidence of demodicid infestations was highest among males, 66%, in two groups of Aborigines but the mites were absent in a third group.

PATHOLOGY IN ANTECHINUS STUARTII (MARSUPIALIA) DUE TO DEMODEX SP.

Pathological manifestations occasioned by mites of the genus Demodex are reported from Antechinus stuartii , a marsupial mouse. Derangements from single mite invasion of a hair follicle to massive nodule formation are detailed. In heavy infestations mites are found well distributed in the skin of the body with nodules limited, however, to the head, hind legs, around the base of the tail, the cloacal regions and, in females, just anterior to the pouch area. Mites invade the hair follicle, where increase in their numbers leads to hypertrophy of the follicular epithelium which forms marked lobules surrounded by heavily vascularized connective tissue. It is thought that destruction of the lobule cells and penetration of the blood vessels due to increased mite numbers and activity leads to leucocytic infiltration with destruction of the mites and nodule deflation. In two instances of nodule deterioration a thickened skin plaque with markedly reduced mite populations remained in place of the nodule. Gross symptoms of demodicidosis are occasionally marked in animals maintained in the laboratory but have not been found in specimens from the field. This suggests that environmental or dietary factors may be important in the onset of gross symptoms of demodicidosis. This investigation was supported in part by a National Science Foundation (U.S.A.) grant (G-23321) and by a Commonwealth Scientific and an Industrial Research Organization (Australia) grant for marsupial research to the Zoology Department, A.N.U. Dr Herman Beerman, Professor and Chairman, Department of Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, very kindly read and criticized our interpretation of the pathology. We are grateful for his help. We would like to thank Margaret Dahlquist, Research Assistant, for her excellent technical assistance in the preparation of material for this report.

Parasitic mites of Surinam XIII Ophthalmodex artibei gen. nov., spec. nov. (Prostigmata: Demodicidae) from Artibeus lituratus with notes on pathogenesis

ABSTRACT A new genus, Ophthalmodex, is characterized and erected, and a type species, Ophthalmodex artibei, described from Artibeus lituratus, a Surinam bat. These turtle-shaped mites are members of the family Demodicidae. They are remarkably modified for survival on the corneal surface and in the eyelid fornixes of the host mammal. In this latter locus, they consume epithelial cells. They also invade the lacrimal duct, plugging the lumen, destroying the epithelial cells and occasioning leucocyte infiltration in surrounding tissue. This is the first demodicid discovered in the lacrimal gland complex.

Demodex cafferi n.sp. from the african buffalo, Syncerus caffer

ABSTRACT Demodex cafferi n. sp. is described from the African buffalo. Population studies of this new species suggests arrhenotoky (1:31, male: female), survivorship of Type III and plausible r-selection. A marked similarity, for mite morphology and pathogenesis, prevails between this species and D. bovis Stiles. Deposited ova are often in early division stages of embryo-genesis with occasional 2,4, and 8 cell holoblastic cleavage; these last are somewhat unusual departures from a typical meroblastic arthropod pattern.

Retrovirus (HIV). Transfer, potential vectors, and biomedical concerns.

T Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome-Related Complex (ARC) is initiated by HTLV-III (LAV, HIV*), which, of itself, produces signs and neurologic symptoms as well as compromising the immune system so that opportunistic infections (those commonly AIDS-related) produce eventual fatalities. The AII3S virus is rapidly and exponentially spreading globally, with a recent estimate {Time, September 1986) of 10 million carriers and 100 thousand overt cases.

Demodex bantengi N. sp. from Bos javanicus (D'Alton) with notes on gross pathology (Acari: Demodicidae)

Abstract Demodex bantengi n. sp. is described from the integumental nodules of Bos javanicus, a domesticated bovine of Bali. These mites invade the hair follicle producing minute hairless nodules which become papular (up to 25 mm) as they enlarge due to increase in mite numbers and activity.