Fwd: [anthill] Mites Around The World
Amy Savage
From: Rob Dunn <rrd...@ncsu.edu>
Date: Fri, May 16, 2014 at 11:03 AM
Subject: [anthill] Mites Around The World
To:
Hi folks,
We have been studying the mites that live on humans for a while now. These mites appear to live on all adult humans, at least humans born in the U.S. and living in NC. Two species of these mites are known (though a third unnamed mite has been noted albeit not described). We suspect many more species of these mites can be found on humans (not to mention thousands of new Demodex mites on other mammals. The mites of chimpanzees and gorillas, for example, have never been studied). We would like to get a sense of the global diversity of these mites and think that the best way to do so is to sample people from around the world. Globally there are far more mysteries in the story of these mites than answers. For example, it has been documented that in some pacific islanders, children seem to have the mites but adults don't, the exact opposite of what is generally held to be true elsewhere.
If you live in Raleigh or Durham (or are even just passing through) and were born somewhere other than Western Europe or North America, we would love to sample your mites. We have been struggling with how to best do this, but we have come up with a plan. Megan Thoemmes (yourwi...@gmail.com) will coordinate a couple of sampling events next week to allow as many people as possible to participate. The way this will work is that Megan will keep track of what countries we have samples from and if we still need a sample from your country of origin will coordinate a sampling event.
If, in doing this, we do not find a new species of mite, I will shave my head.
Please share this far and wide.
Best,
Rob (and Michelle Trautwein, Dan Fergus, Julie Urban, and Megan Thoemmes)
Amy M. Savage, PhD