SREL Reprint #2019

Food and ectoparasites of the southern short-tailed shrew, Blarina carolinensis (Mammalia: Soricidae), from South Carolina

John O. Whitaker, Jr.1, Gregory D. Hartman2, and Randy Hein3

1Department of Life Sciences, Indiana State University, Terra Haute, Indiana 47809
2Museum of Southwestern Biology, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
and Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 298021
3Department of Life Sciences, Indiana State University, Terra Haute, Indiana 47809

Abstract: Food habitats and ectoparasites were examined in a sample of 50 individuals of Blarina carolinensis collected in a hardwood forest on the Coastal Plain of western South Carolina. Both in terms of volume and frequency of occurrence, predominant foods were slugs and snails (Mollusca), the hypogeous fungus Endogone, earthworms (Annelida), and beetle (Coleoptera) adults and larvae. Ectoparasites observed on B. carolinensis included one species of flea (Doratopsylla blarina), one species of beetle (Leptinus americanus), and 25 species of mites, the most frequent being Orycteroxenus soricis, Asiochirus blarina, Echinonyssus blarinae, Haemogamasus liponyssoides, and several species of Pygmephorus.

SREL Reprint #2019

Whitaker, J.O., Jr., G.D. Hartman, and R. Hein. 1994. Food and ectoparasites of the southern short-tailed shrew, Blarina carolinensis (Mammalia: Soricidae), from South Carolina. Brimleyana 21:97-105.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).