The natural history of mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) associated with the white-spotted sawyer beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae): diversity, phenology, host attachment, and sex bias

Abstract

Little is known about the acarofauna associated with wood-boring beetles in Canada, including long-horned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Herein, we assessed the prevalence, abundance, diversity, phenology, and attachment location of mesostigmatic mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) associated with Monochamus scutellatus (Say), and tested whether the abundance and prevalence of mites differed between male and female beetles. A total of 176 beetles were collected in two sites in eastern Ontario in 2008 and 2009 using Lindgren funnel traps baited with α-pinene and ethanol lures, and 71% of hosts had mesostigmatic mites. A total of 2486 mites were collected, representing eight species, four genera, and three families (Digamasellidae, Trematuridae, and Melicharidae). Average prevalence was variable across mite species, and the number of mites per infested beetle also varied across species. Many of the mite species collected in this study have been reported from other cerambycid species, as well as from other wood-boring beetles, such as bark beetles. There was no significant sex bias in the abundance or prevalence of mites between male and female M. scutellatus, which suggests that there is no selective advantage for mites to disperse on females. This study represents the first quantitative investigation of the mites associated with M. scutellatus in Canada.

The phoretic mite (Arachnida: Acari) assemblage of the Douglas-fir beetle,Dendroctonus pseudotsugaeHopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

“…Other OTUs were most abundant on the early flying beetles before mostly declining throughout the rest of the sampling period (Figure 3). Previous studies have noted that mite abundances tended to peak at similar times as the flight peaks of their bark beetle hosts and during the highest abundances of their coleopteran host (Knee et al 2012b;Paraschiv et al 2018). This is mostly supported by OTUs A, B2 and C being negligibly and moderately positively correlated with the number of beetles.…”

Phoretic mite assemblage of the pinyon pine beetle, Ips confusus (Curculionidae: Scolytinae), in Arizona

“…Dendrolaelaps quadrisetosimilis was found underneath elytra, which may provide protection from predators and mechanical removal during beetle tunneling and flight. Dendrolaelaps and Proctolaelaps lack specialized structures for phoretic dispersal, which may be why many Proctolaelaps were found in the gel capsule and Dendrolaelaps under the elytra (Knee et al 2012, Milosavljević et al 2022. Ereynetes propescutulis were found on various locations on the beetle and in the gel capsule, which may be due to a lack of specialized adaptations for phoresy in this species (Khaustov et al 2018).…”

Mesostigmados (Acari: Mesostigmata) asociados con Dendroctonus rhizophagus de Chihuahua, México

“…La familia Trematuridae tiene hábitos nematófagos; de las especies encontradas en este estudio, Trichouropoda hirsuta ha sido reportada en 4 especies de Dendroctonus (D. approximatus, D. brevicomis, D. frontalis y D. valens) y 4 de Ips (Ips avulsus, I. calligraphus, I. grandicollis, I. pini) en Estados Unidos por Moser et al (1974), Hirschmann y Wisniewski (1986), Hofstetter (2008), Kinn y Linit (1989) y Knee et al (2012); mientras que T. ovalis fue citada sólo en D. frontalis en Honduras por Moser et al (1974). De estas especies no se ha observado ni reportado ningún aspecto sobre su biología.…”

“…Todas las deutoninfas de estos ácaros de esta familia se adhieren a su huésped mediante un pedicelo anal, que es una estructura flexible y resistente que proporciona una baja probabilidad de ser desalojado y que a su vez le proporciona más libertad para la selección del sitio donde se va a fijar (Faasch, 1967;Binns, 1982). Knee et al (2012) realizaron un estudio sobre los ácaros uropodoideos en cerambícidos, quienes mencionan que algunas especies de trematúridos se encuentran principalmente bajo los élitros, mientras que T. prefiere la parte dorsal del protórax de los cerambícidos, lo que no coincide con lo reportado en este estudio, pues las especies identificadas se encontraban principalmente en el área ventral del cuerpo.…”