New records of heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Heterostimatina) from dry rice cultivation of Gorgan, northern Iran

Abstract

Gorgan, is a city in northern Iran where its moderate and humid climate and fertile soil provides an appropriate condition for various arthropods and crops. Although, species diversity is relatively lower in agricultural systems than pristine ecosystems, several soil mite populations are successfully adapted to both tilled and untilled lands. Following a faunistic study of heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Heterostigmatina) in dry rice cultivations in some areas of Gorgan, eight species from six genera of five families were collected and identified. For the first time we report six species for Iranian arthropod fauna as well as several new host associations. Finally, we reviewed the world distribution of the recovered mites and further provided a key to Heterostigmatina of dry rice cultivations in Gorgan city.

An update on the knowledge about scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines

“…In the family Scarabaeidae, three new genera have been reported as a new host for scutacarids: the genus Adoretus for Heterodispus turkmenistaniensis, the genus Hybalus for Pygmodispus odontotarsus Sevastianov, 1975 (Khaustov and Frolov 2018), and the genus Oryctes for Scutacarus longitarsus (Berlese, 1905) (Rahiminejad et al 2020a(Rahiminejad et al , 2023.…”

“…In the family Dryopidae, the genus Dryops has been reported as new host for Scutacarus sphaeroideus Karafiat, 1959 (Rahiminejad et al 2020b(Rahiminejad et al , 2023. About 75% of dryopid species are aquatic (Khagani et al 2022), but although no nearer information was available, it is most probable that S. sphaeroideus was attached to one of the remaining riparian or terrestrial species.…”

“…moderatus Khaustov, 2008. Archidispus insolitus, until now only known from Carabidae (Baumann 2018), has also been found on Meloidae (see below), Tenebrionidae and Scarabaeidae (Rahiminejad et al 2023). Imparipes (I.)…”

“…Lucanus ibericus of the family Lucanidae has also been newly reported as host for Scutacarus longitarsus (Rahiminejad et al 2020a(Rahiminejad et al , 2023. The larvae of lucanid beetles live in decayed wood, a suitable habitat for scutacarids.…”

“…Scutacarids (Scutacaridae, Pygmephoroidea, Heterostigmatina) are mostly soil-inhabiting, fungivorous mites which are often associated with various other animal taxa: about half of the more than 800 described species (most recent number published by Rahiminejad et al (2023)) can be found as phoronts or inquilines of other animals. In my review article from 2018 (Baumann 2018), I gave an overview about all associations between scutacarids and other animal taxa published until May 2017, and the aim of the present work is to update this information by including all new articles released between May 2017 and September 2023 (and the occasional publication that had slipped my attention in my previous review article).…”