Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 4377 No. 4: 5 Feb. 2018
Type: Article
Published: 2018-02-05
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4377.4.4
Page range: 542–564
Abstract views: 105
PDF downloaded: 2

Ascidae, Blattisociidae and Melicharidae (Acari: Mesostigmata): zoogeographic analyses based on newly available databases

CNPq Researcher, Departamento de Entomologia e Acarologia, ESALQ-Universidade de São Paulo, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
Depto. de Entomologia e Acarologia, Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” (ESALQ)-Universidade de São Paulo (USP), 13418 - 900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
Instituto Federal Goiano - Câmpus Urutaí, Urutaí, Brazil. Present address: Instituto de Ciências Exatas e Tecnologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, UFAM, Itacoatiara, Amazonas, 69103-128, Brazil
CNPq Researcher, Departamento de Entomologia e Acarologia, ESALQ-Universidade de São Paulo, 13418-900 Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil.
diversity predatory mites biological control database

Abstract

Until recently, species of the families Ascidae Voigts & Oudemans, Blattisociidae Garman and Melicharidae Hirschmann were considered to belong to a single family, Ascidae, based on their similarity in external morphology. Databases on the distribution and biology of species in those families have been collected are now freely available. This information allows the first zoogeographic analysis of these groups. Almost 2200 records obtained from about 820 publications were entered into the databases, which are periodically updated. The countries with the highest known diversity of mites of these groups are: Ascidae—Russia (56), United States of America (42), China (37) and Poland (36); Blattisociidae—China (47), United States of America (41), Ecuador (38), India (33) and Poland (32); Melicharidae—United States of America (46), Brazil (23), Ecuador (20) and Poland and Germany (15). No species of these families have been reported from about 44% of the countries, most probably because of inadequate sampling effort. Comparing the species composition of the different regions, Jaccard similarity indexes were low, being higher between the Palaearctic and Saharo-Arabian regions for the ascids (0.15), between the same regions for the blattisociids (0.19) and between the Neotropical and Panamanian regions for the melicharids (0.18). These data are compatible with the results of parsimony analyses of endemicity (PAE), in which those pairs of regions constituted distinct clades. The analyses suggest that Ascidae probably originated in the Palaearctic region, whereas Blattisociidae and Melicharidae probably originated somewhere in the Neotropical or Panamanian regions.

 

References

  1. Bhattacharyya, A.K. (2001) Present state of knowledge of Indian ascid mites (Acarina: Mesostigmata) and their zoogeographic distribution. In: Second Acarology Symposium, abstracts, African Acarology Association, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi. Available from: http://www.africanacarologyassociation.com/symposiumII.htm. (accessed 30 May 2017)

    Carrillo, D., Moraes, G.J. de & Peña, J.E. (2015) Prospects for Biological Control of Plant Feeding Mites and Other Harmful Organisms. Springer, Cham, 328 pp.

    Crisci, J.V. (2001) The voice of historical biogeography. Journal of Biogeography, 28 (2), 157–168.
    https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2001.00523.x

    Demite, P.R., McMurtry, J.A. & Moraes, G.J. de (2014) Phytoseiidae Database: a website for taxonomic and distributional information on phytoseiid mites (Acari). Zootaxa, 3795 (5), 571–577.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3795.5.6

    Demite, P.R., Moraes, G.J. de, McMurtry, J.A., Denmark, H.A. & Castilho, R.C. (2017) Phytoseiidae Database. Available from: http://www.lea.esalq.usp.br/phytoseiidae/ (accessed 25 May 2017)

    Fox, I. (1946) Three new mites from rats in Puerto Rico. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 59, 173–175.

    García-Barros, E., Gurrea, P., Luciañez, M.J., Cano, J.M., Munguira, M.L., Moreno, J.C., Sainz, H., Sanz, M.J. & Simón, J.C. (2002) Parsimony analysis of endemicity and its application to animal and plant geographical distributions in the Ibero-Balearic region (western Mediterranean). Journal of Biogeography, 29, 109–124.
    https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2002.00653.x

    Hammer, O., Harper, D.A.T. & Ryan, P.D. (2001) PAST: Paleontological Statistic software package for education and data analysis. Paleontologia Electronica, 4 (1), 1–9.

    Holt, B.G., Lessard J.-P., Borregaard, M.K., Fritz, S.A., Araújo, M.B., Dimitrov, D., Fabre, P.-H., Graham, C.H., Graves, G.R., Jønsson, K.A., Nogués-Bravo, D., Wang, Z., Whittaker, R.J., Fjeldså, J. & Rahbek, C. (2013) An update of Wallace's zoogeographic regions of the world. Science, 339 (74), 74–78.
    https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1228282

    Karg, W. (1996) Neue Arten aus Raubmilbengattungen der Gamasina Leach (Acarina, Parasitiformes) mit Indikationen zum Entwicklungsalter. Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin, 72, 149–195.
    https://doi.org/10.1002/mmnz.19960720111

    Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (2009) A Manual of Acarology. 3rd dition. Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas, 807 pp.

    Lindquist, E.E. & Evans, G.O. (1965) Taxonomic concepts in the Ascidae, with a modified setal nomenclature for the idiosoma of the Gamasina (Acarina: Mesostigmata). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, 47, 1–64.
    https://doi.org/10.4039/entm9747fv

    Lindquist, E.E. & Moraza, M.L. (2008) A new genus of flower-dwelling melicharid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata: Ascoidea) phoretic on bats and insects in Costa Rica and Brazil. Zootaxa, 1685, 1–37.

    Lindquist, E.E. & Moraza, M.L. (2016) A new genus of mites of the subfamily Platyseiinae associated with Azteca ant galleries in Cecropia trees in Costa Rica (Acari: Mesostigmata: Blattisociidae). Acarologia, 56 (3), 293–319.
    https://doi.org/10.1051/acarologia/20162242

    McMurtry, J.A., Famah-Sourassou, N. & Demite, P.R. (2015) The Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) as Biological Control Agents. In: Carillo, D., Moraes, G.J. de & Peña, J. (Eds.), Prospects for Biological Control of Plant Feeding Mites and Other Harmful Organisms. Springer, Cham, pp. 133–149.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15042-0_5

    Moraes, G.J. de., Venancio, R., Santos, V.L.V. & Paschoal, A.D. (2015) Potential of Ascidae, Blattisociidae and Melicharidae (Acari: Mesostigmata) as biological control agents of pest organisms. In: Carillo, D., Moraes, G.J. de & Peña, J. (Eds.), Prospects for Biological Control of Plant Feeding Mites and Other Harmful Organisms. Springer, Cham, pp. 33–75.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15042-0_2

    Moraes, G.J. de., Britto, E.P.J., Mineiro, J.L.C. & Halliday, B. (2016) Catalogue of the mite families Ascidae Voigts & Oudemans, Blattisociidae Garman and Melicharidae Hirschmann (Acari: Mesostigmata). Zootaxa, 4112 (1), 1–299.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4112.1.1

    Moraza, M.L. & Lindquist, E.E. (2015) Systematics and biology of mites associated with neotropical hispine beetles in unfurled leaves of Heliconia, with descriptions of two new genera of the family Melicharidae (Acari: Mesostigmata: Gamasina: Ascoides). Zootaxa, 3931 (3), 301–351.
    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3931.3.1

    Moraza, M.L. & Lindquist, E.E. (2016) New species and biological data for the neotropical genus Hispiniphis (Acari: Mesostigmata: Melicharidae) associated with hispine beetles, genus Cephaloleia, in unfurled leaves of Heliconia. Systematic and Applied Acarology, 21, 85–118.
    https://doi.org/10.11158/saa.21.1.7

    Morrone, J.J. (1994) On the identification of areas of endemism. Systematic Biology, 43, 438–441.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/43.3.438

    Morrone, J.J. (2014) Parsimony analysis of endemicity (PAE) revisited. Journal of Biogeography, 41, 842–854.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12251

    Oudemans, A.C. (1905) Acarologische Aanteekeningen XVII. Entomologische Berichten, 1 (23), 222–226.

    Swofford, D.L. (1998) ‘PAUP’: phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (and other methods). Version 4.01b. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA.

    Tixier, M.-S., Kreiter, S. & Moraes, G.J. de (2008) Zoogeographic distribution of the Phytoseiidae (Acari: Mesostigmata). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 93, 845–856.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2007.00937.x

    Walter, D.E. & Lindquist, E.E. (1997) Australian species of Lasioseius (Acari: Mesostigmata: Ascidae): the porulosus group and other species from rainforest Canopies. Invertebrate Taxonomy, 11, 525–547.
    https://doi.org/10.1071/IT96003

    Walter, D.E. & Proctor, H.C. (2013) Mites: Ecology, Evolution & Behaviour: Life at a Microscale. 2nd Edition. Springer, Dordrecht, 505 pp.
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7164-2

    Westerboer, I. (1963) Die Familie Podocinidae Berlese 1916. Abschnitt IV. In: Stammer, H.J. (Ed.), Beiträge zur Systematik und Ökologie mitteleuropäischer Acarina. Band II. Mesostigmata I. Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest & Portig K.-G., Leipzig, pp. 179–450.

    Wood, T.G. (1965) Mites of the genus Asca V. Heyden (Mesostigmata, Blattisociidae) from New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Science, 8 (1), 127–135.