The members of the family Scutacaridae (Acari, Heterostigmatina, Pygmephoroidea) are soil-living, fungivorous mites, and some of them are known to be associated with other animals After reviewing the mites’ behavioural and morphological adaptations to their animal-associated lifestyle, the present publication shows the result of a thorough literature research on scutacarids living in different kinds of associations with other animal taxa It revealed that within the more than 800 scutacarid species that have been described so far, about the half of them can be found together with various animal taxa The respective scutacarid species can be phoretic using their hosts for dispersal, they can be inquilines of their hosts benefiting from favourable conditions in the hosts’ nests, or they can be both The highest number of scutacarid species, by far, (n = 214) is associated with ants The second highest number can be found on beetles (94; mainly on ground beetles, Carabidae), followed by mammals (52), bees and wasps (35) and other insect taxa (39), and some species can be found together with birds (10) and arachnids (6) The most frequent genera Scutacarus, Imparipes and Archidispus show host preferences: Scutacarus and Imparipes tend to prefer ants, while Archidispus prefers beetles Usually, scutacarid species are rather specialised on one host genus or one host family, but some seem to be host generalists The possible influence of scutacarids on their hosts is not known yet, but they could play a sanitary role in their hosts’ nests

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Tiny mites on a great journey – a review on scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines (Heterostigmatina, Pygmephoroidea, Scutacaridae)

........................................................................................................... V TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ VII LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................XIV LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................XIX CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................ 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.

Sex-specific aging in two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae: Effects of diet, social environment and predator-induced stress

Sex dimorphism is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and can be influenced by environmental factors. However, relatively little is known about how the degree and direction of sex difference vary with environmental factors, including food quality and temperature. With the spider mites from the family Tetranychidae as subjects, the sex difference of life-history traits in responses to host plant and temperature were determined in this meta-analytic review. Across the 42 studies on 26 spider mite species (N = 8057 and 3922 for female and male mites, respectively), female spider mites showed longer developmental duration than the males in all except two species. The direction of sex difference in development was consistent regardless of temperature and host plant. The 16 spider mite species in 33 studies generally showed female-biased longevity, with an overall effect size of 0.6043 [95%CI = 0.4054–0.8031]. Host plant significantly influenced the sex difference in longevity, where the males lived longer than females below 22.5 ℃, but the reverse was true at higher and fluctuating temperature. Host plant also influenced the magnitude of sex difference in longevity, with females living longer than males when reared on herbs but not on trees. This study indicated that life-history traits are highly variable between sexes under temperature and host plant influence, highlighting that environmental conditions can significantly shape the direction and magnitude of sexual dimorphism of life-history traits.

Sex dimorphism of life-history traits and their response to environmental factors in spider mites

The present paper reports duration of different developmental stages as well as fecundity, longevity, oviposition periods, sex ratio, etc. of Tetranychus sayedi Baker & Pitchard on two medicinal plants, viz. Cryptolepis buchanani Roem & Schult and Justicia adhatoda L. under laboratory condition at 27.5 °C and 65% R.H. during February-March, 2016. The two hosts in which the life cycle was studied form two new records of hosts for this mite. It appears that C. buchanani is better host among the two hosts as because the life cycle (egg to adult) was completed in shorter time, recording high fecundity and longer longevity.

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Life cycle of a plant parasitic mite, Tetranychus sayedi Baker & Pitchard (Acari: Tetranychidae) on two hosts from West Bengal, India.

Some new records of  mites associated  with insects (Order: Diptera,Hymenoptera, Orthoptera)from West Bengal are given in this communication. Eighteen species of mites belonging  to 12 families , 3 orders, collected from, Narendrapur campus and adjoining areas, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal are reported here giving collection data , status, importance, if any.

Salil Kumar Gupta

Papers

Life cycle of a plant parasitic mite, Tetranychus sayedi Baker & Pitchard (Acari: Tetranychidae) on two hosts from West Bengal, India.

Some New Reports of Insect Associated Mites from west Bengal