ABSTRACT

The organisms in the Acarina order of the Arachnida class that form an important group of the Arthropoda are called mites. Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Trouessart, 1897) and D. farinae (Hughes, 1961) are known to be the most common mites found in house dust. The aim of this study was to determine the house dust mite fauna in Malatya that had not been investigated previously. In this study, a total of 303 house dust samples collected from various districts of Malatya between June 1, 2000 and November 20, 2001 were examined. The dust samples were examined by the lactic acid precipitation method which was modified from the Spieksma- Boezaman’s method. The rate of mites was found to be 23.1%. In conclusion, the rate of mites detected in this study was considered to be high considering the altitude and humidity of Malatya.

Keywords: House dust mite, Malatya