Diversity of Interactions between Mites and Insects

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 4591

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
Interests: systematics, ecology and biogeography primarily of mite family; evolution of host races in mites - Eriophyoidea, Tetranychidae, and Tarsonemidae; fossil mites (Arachnida: Acari); systematics and phylogenetics in theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mites and insects are hyperdiverse groups of organisms and integral components of many ecosystems. They frequently co-occur spatially and temporally, and their coexistence has led to the evolution of various interactions between species. In 1844, Edward Newman wrote that “nothing is more common than for insects to be infested with minute acari”, which perfectly reflects the commonness of associations between these groups of arthropods. Parasitism, symbiosis, or phoresy are the most common, but in many cases, they remain largely unstudied. The lack of collaboration between acarologists and entomologists or the confusing taxonomy of many mite groups can be listed among the most important causes regarding why our knowledge of many mite-insect relationships is still limited. Previous research findings have shown that the nature of many mite–insect relationships is not always evident and often turns out to be more complex than originally recognized. A good example can be phoresy, a phenomenon in which a mite uses an insect to disperse. We already know that phoretic interactions can be neutral, harmful, or even have beneficial effects on the carrier organism. A wide range of diverse interactions changing into one another can be observed even within the same mite–insect system.

Studies of relationships between mites and insects are important because they allow an understanding of the functioning of many communities, provide knowledge of the evolution of these two groups of arthropods, and the findings can be applied, e.g., in the biological control of arthropod pests. Species extinction caused by habitat loss and fragmentation due to human development and global warming may cause many mite–insect interactions to remain unknown.

This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews reporting recent ecological and evolutionary discoveries in the field of a diverse array of mite–insect interactions. Taxonomic manuscripts presenting descriptions of new mite species associated with insects are also welcomed. We look forward to your contributions to this Special Issue.

Dr. Wojciech Magowski
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • mites
  • insects
  • phoresy
  • parasitism
  • mutualism
  • symbiosis
  • host specificity
  • coevolution

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3683 KiB  
Article
Ochyronemus, a New Genus of the Tarsonemid Tribe Pseudotarsonemoidini (Acari: Heterostigmatina) from Mexico
by Wojciech Ł. Magowski, Jose M. Rezende and Ronald Ochoa
Insects 2025, 16(1), 46; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16010046 - 6 Jan 2025
Viewed by 623
Abstract
A new genus for the tribe Pseudotarsonemoidini of the family Tarsonemidae is established in order to accommodate undescribed mites associated with bark beetles in Mexico. The new, monotypic genus Ochyronemus, with the type species O. jaliscoe being diagnostically and phylogenetically closest to [...] Read more.
A new genus for the tribe Pseudotarsonemoidini of the family Tarsonemidae is established in order to accommodate undescribed mites associated with bark beetles in Mexico. The new, monotypic genus Ochyronemus, with the type species O. jaliscoe being diagnostically and phylogenetically closest to the derived Pseudotarsonemoides-Tarsobisulcus cluster of the Pseudotarsonemoidini, possesses an intermediate position between these two genera. Details of the morphology related to its genus-level affiliation, primarily tibiotarsal I claw and leg setation, are compared in the context of the other genera of the tribe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Interactions between Mites and Insects)
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15 pages, 4475 KiB  
Article
Two New Phoretic Species of Heterostigmatic Mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Neopygmephoridae and Scutacaridae) on Australian Hydrophilid Beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae)
by Hamid Khadem-Safdarkhani, Hamidreza Hajiqanbar, Markus Riegler, Owen Seeman and Alihan Katlav
Insects 2022, 13(5), 483; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13050483 - 22 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3042
Abstract
Many heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Heterostigmata) display a wide range of symbiotic interactions, from phoresy to parasitism, with a variety of insects. Australia is expected to harbour a rich diversity of heterostigmatic mites; however, its phoretic fauna and its host associations remain mainly [...] Read more.
Many heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Heterostigmata) display a wide range of symbiotic interactions, from phoresy to parasitism, with a variety of insects. Australia is expected to harbour a rich diversity of heterostigmatic mites; however, its phoretic fauna and its host associations remain mainly unexplored. We conducted a short exploration of Australian insect-associated phoretic mites in summer 2020 and found two new phoretic heterostigmatic species on a semiaquatic hydrophilid beetle species, Coelostoma fabricii (Montrouzier, 1860) (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae). Here, we describe these two new species, Allopygmephorus coelostomus sp. nov. (Neopygmephoridae) and Archidispus hydrophilus sp. nov. (Scutacaridae), which both belong to the superfamily Pygmephoroidea. Both species are distinct from their congeners, with a plesiomorphic character, bearing a median genital sclerite (mgs). Our study reports both genera for the first time from Australia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity of Interactions between Mites and Insects)
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