Multivariate analysis of the effects of site factors on the distributions of raphignathoid mites (Acari: Raphignathoidea)

Abstract

This study was carried out to examine the relationships between the distributions of raphignathoid mite (Acari: Raphignathoidea) species and their temporal and environmental site factors (i.e. season, habitat type, and altitude) in Pülümür Valley and its immediate environs, Turkey. Data was collected from 306 samples from the various locations in the study area. 70 raphignathoid mite species were identified. The most common raphignathoid species, genus, and family are Neognathus terrestris, Eustigmaeus, and Stigmaeidae, respectively. It has been also found that the greatest number of raphignathoid mite specimens has been encountered in autumn, followed by spring, summer, and winter, respectively.
 Before applying the statistical analysis, rare species (i.e., the species having less than 5% frequency value) were omitted from the data matrix. Thus, the first (original) matrix size was reduced from 70⨉306 to 20⨉242. Elevation is a continuous variable whereas seasons and habitat types are nominal data. Therefore, each of the seasons (winter, spring, summer, and autumn), and each of habitat types [i.e., litter, soil, soil and organic components, mixed material consisting of moss and liken, and the others (manure and ant nest)] were inserted as binary data [present (1), absent (0)] in the data matrix.
 Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CANOCA) was applied to define the species-site relationships. Findings indicate that Caligonella haddadi, Neognathus terrestris, Cryptognathus lagena, Raphignathus gracilis, and Stigmaeus devlethanensis are significantly associated with moss and lichen habitat whereas litter, grassy and mossy soil are more suitable habitat types for Favognathus amygdalus, F. cucurbita, Raphignathus kuznetzovi, Eustigmaeus dogani, E. pinnatus, E. segnis, Ledermuelleriopsis aminiae, L. ayyildizi, and Storchia robusta. In addition to this, three species Favognathus cucurbita, Eustigmaeus segnis, and Ledermuelleriopsis plumosus are positively and six species Caligonella humilis, Neognathus terrestris, Favognathus amygdalus, Raphignathus gracilis, Raphignathus kuznetzovi and Ledermuelleriopsis aminiae are negatively related to elevation.