FOOD AND ECTOPARASITES OF THE SOUTHERN SHORT-TAILED SHREW, BLARINA-CAROLINENSIS (MAMMALIA, SORICIDAE), FROM SOUTH-CAROLINA

Food habitats and ectoparasites were examined in a sample of 50 indivi duals of Blarina carolinensis collected in a hardwood forest on the Co astal Plain of western South Carolina. Both in terms of volume and fre quency of occurrence, predominant foods were slugs and snails (Mollusc a), the hypogeous fungus Endogone, earthworms (Annelida), and beetle ( Coleoptera) adults and larvae. Ectoparasites observed on B. carolinens is included one species of flea (Doratopsylla blarina), one species of beetle (Leptinus americanus), and 25 species of mites, the most frequ ent being Orycteroxenus soricis, Asiochirus blarina, Echinonyssus blar inae, Haemogamasus liponyssoides, and several species of Pygmephorus.