Mites (Acari) Associated with the Desert Seed Harvester Ant,Messor pergandei(Mayr)

Abstract

Mites (Acari) associated with the seed harvester ant Messor pergandei were investigated in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. At least seven representatives of the mite genera Armacarus, Lemanniella, Petalomium, Forcellinia, Histiostoma, Unguidispus, and Cosmoglyphus are phoretically associated with M. pergandei. Most of these morphospecies show preference for specific phoretic attachment sites and primarily use female alates rather than male alates for dispersal. Five mite morphospecies were found in low numbers inhabiting the chaff piles: Tydeidae sp., Procaeculus sp., Anystidae sp., Bakerdania sp., and Tetranychidae sp. The phoretic Petalomium sp. was observed consuming fungus growing on a dead queen, but the roles of the other mite species remain mostly unresolved.

A comparative study of oribatid mite communities in red wood ant Formica polyctena nests and surrounding soil in a Finnish oak forest

“…Several studies provide comprehensive lists of ant‐associated invertebrates revealing a hyper‐diverse environment inside the ant communities (Kistner, ; Hölldobler & Wilson, ; Laakso & Setälä, ; Rettenmeyer et al ., ; Robinson & Robinson, ; Härkönen & Sorvari, ; Parmentier et al ., ). But, some studies have focused only on one specific taxonomic group among ant‐associated organisms such as beetles (Päivinen et al ., , ), spiders (Cushing, ), myriapods (Stoev & Lapeva‐Gjonova, ), earthworms (Laakso & Setälä, ) and mesostigmatid mites (Lehtinen, ; Berghoff et al ., ; Uppstrom & Klompen, ; Campbell et al ., ).…”

First record of a phoretic mite (Histiostomatidae) on a cave dwelling cricket (Phalangopsidae) from Brazil

“…Histiostomatidae are known by using a great diversity of arthopods as hosts in the epigean environment, such as arachnids (Dunlop et al, 2012;Fain, 1991;Vachon, 1940), centipedes (Fain, 1991), coleopterans (Fain and SantiagoBlay, 1993;Wirth et al, 2016;Wirth and Pernek, 2012), dipterans, earwigs, cockroaches (Negm and Alatawi, 2011;Pimsler et al, 2016;Tagami, 2013;Chmielewski, 2009), hymenopterans (Fain and Erteld, 1998;Fain and Pauly, 2001;Uppstrom and Klompen, 2011), springtails (Fain and Johnston, 1974), among others arthropods. However, few cases of Histiostomatidae using orthopterans as disperser hosts are recorded: a single association with crickets (Gryllidae: Gryllus bimaculatus) in Saudi Arabia (Negm and Alatawi, 2011) and other with sandgropers (Cylindrachetidae: Cylindraustralia kochii and C. tindalei) in Australia (Houston, 2007).…”

As formigas poneromorfas do Brasil

“…Ácaros do gênero Petalomium são extremamente especí-fi cos quanto à localização de sua fi xação no corpo das formigas. São encontrados na região do esterno, entre o primeiro e o segundo par de coxas, na base das antenas e raramente nas pernas das formigas (EBERMANN; RACK, 1982;BERGHO-FF et al, 2009;KLOMPEN, 2011;CAMPBELL et. al, 2012).…”