| abstract | Ornithodoros (Alectorobius) collocaliae, n.sp., is described from laboratory-reared larvae and from adults and nymphs taken in and near nests of the white-bellied cave swiftlet, Collocalia esculenta linchi Horsfield (family Apodidae), in a seaside cave in West Java and in an old Japanese army bunker near the sea in East Java. Among the 34 species described in the subgenus Alectorobius Pocock, chiefly from bat-inhabited caves in the Neotropical and Nearctic Faunal Regions, this cavernicolous species is the only member known only from the Oriental Region and from nests of Apodidae. The finding of this Oriental species raises numerous questions regarding biological evolution and virus-tick interrelationships in the subgenus Alectorobius. |