one of two species, the other being Leptotrombidium deliensis (T. deliensis), implicated in the transmission of Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, agent of tsutsugamushi disease in Japan and elsewhere in Asia; the larvae of these species are characteristic parasites of rodents, which therefore are reservoirs of human infections, although the mites themselves are also reservoirs, because their rickettsial parasites are transovarially transmitted from generation to generation (a requirement for transmission to humans as only larval mites feed parasitically and then only once in their lifetimes). SYN: Trombicula akamushi.
