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Forests
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Advanced Research in Mites Associated with Trees
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Advanced Research in Mites Associated with Trees

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Biodiversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 1666

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Filipp Chetverikov

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Parasitology, Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 1, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
Interests: acarology; mites; systematics; phylogeny
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forests are the predominant terrestrial ecosystem of the Earth. Various vertebrate and invertebrate animals are associated with differently shaped and phylogenetically diverse trees in boreal, temperate, subtropical, and tropical biomes. Among the microarthropods that inhabit trees in various types of forests, mites are the most numerous and less investigated group. Various phytophagous, predatory, parasitic, and soil mites share common niches in trees and form complex symbiotic relations. Some are serious pests, transmitting viruses and damaging leaves and fruits in the orchards. This issue aims to present a series of articles on acarological studies, specifically focusing on the mites collected in forests and agricultural ecosystems. We will primarily focus on the biodiversity, taxonomy, and ecology of acariform mites associated with woody plants, including the pest mite species of high economic importance.

Dr. Filipp Chetverikov
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • mites
  • microarthropods
  • acarological studies
  • biodiversity
  • taxonomy
  • ecology

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 2319 KiB  
Article
Seasonal Variation in Foliar Mite Diversity and Abundance in Leaf Domatia of Three Native South African Forest Species
by Sivuyisiwe Situngu and Nigel P. Barker
Forests 2024, 15(3), 467; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15030467 - 01 Mar 2024
Viewed by 640
Abstract
Mite communities inhabiting plants are known to be affected by several environmental factors, including temperature and humidity. This pilot study aimed to assess seasonal variation in mite abundance and species richness in three Southern African woody species: Gardenia thunbergia, Rothmannia globosa (both [...] Read more.
Mite communities inhabiting plants are known to be affected by several environmental factors, including temperature and humidity. This pilot study aimed to assess seasonal variation in mite abundance and species richness in three Southern African woody species: Gardenia thunbergia, Rothmannia globosa (both Rubiaceae), and Tecomaria capensis (Bignoniaceae). Furthermore, we investigated the influence of rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature, and relative humidity on mite abundance and species richness. The study was conducted in 2014–2015 in Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Twenty mature leaves were collected from all aspects of the plant fortnightly over 34 weeks. Following sampling, the leaves were viewed under a dissecting microscope, and mites were collected from inside the domatia and surrounding leaf surface area. Species diversity and abundance were calculated for each season and compared. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed in R Studio to test relationships between species richness and abundance, minimum and maximum daily temperatures, relative humidity, rainfall the day before, and accumulative rainfall over the preceding two-week period. We found that mites were present in the leaves of the sampled plants across all seasons, but that mite abundance and species richness changed with each season. None of the environmental variables were correlated with mite abundance, and only relative humidity influenced species richness. These results were not consistent across the three plant species studied, and we point to weaknesses in our sampling approach for the observed results. This pilot study, one of the first from southern Africa, provides a window into the complex interactions between plants and mites. We advocate for more studies on mite seasonality to better understand if it is specific to a region, vegetation type, or host species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research in Mites Associated with Trees)
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28 pages, 15038 KiB  
Article
Molecular Phylogenetics and Light Microscopy Reveal “True” and “False” Calacarines and Novel Genital Structures in Gall Mites (Acariformes, Eriophyoidea)
by Philipp E. Chetverikov, Charnie Craemer, Vladimir D. Gankevich, Nhung Thi Tuyet Le, Viet Duc Nguyen, Hoat Xuan Trinh and James Amrine
Forests 2024, 15(2), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020329 - 08 Feb 2024
Viewed by 786
Abstract
Gall mites (Eriophyoidea) are cosmopolitan microscopic phytoparasites that often transmit viruses and induce gallogenesis. The tribe Calacarini is diagnosed by a set of plesiomorphic and homoplastic traits, including elimination of setae sc shared with other lineages of Eriophyoidea. We reviewed data on the [...] Read more.
Gall mites (Eriophyoidea) are cosmopolitan microscopic phytoparasites that often transmit viruses and induce gallogenesis. The tribe Calacarini is diagnosed by a set of plesiomorphic and homoplastic traits, including elimination of setae sc shared with other lineages of Eriophyoidea. We reviewed data on the generic diversity of calacarines, revised the concept of the type genus Calacarus Keifer 1940, and proposed three zones (MZ, SMZ, LZ) in the prodorsal shields of calacarines to simplify descriptions of their shield patterns. We describe three new calacarine species (Calacarus baviensisn. sp., C. burchelliaen. sp., and Viginticus searsiaen. sp.) from indigenous dicotyledonous trees from South Africa and Vietnam and report on new findings of Paracalacarus podocarpi Keifer in Brazil, Jiangsuacarus sp. in the USA, and Calacarus pusillus Pye in Latvia and Russia. The latter represents the new most northern locality of Calacarini. Reinvestigating the type species of Jaranasia Chandrapatya & Boczek 2000 revealed that absence of setae l’’ II is the only character separating it from Jiangsuacarus Xue 2009. We proposed two new combinations: Jiangsuacarus sesleriae (Skoracka 2004) n. comb. (transferred from Jaranasia) and Procalacarus mussaendae (Keifer 1977) n. comb. (transferred from Calacarus). Partial sequences of Cox1 and 28S genes were obtained for six calacarines, some of them originating from old ethanol material kept at room temperature. Molecular phylogenetics revealed a stable cluster of “true” calacarine sequences comprising Calacarus, Jaranasia, Latitudo, and Viginticus and a polyphyletic group of erroneous sequences assigned to Calacarini in GenBank. All investigated females of calacarines have a pair of genital tubules associated with the vestibulum and hypothesized to participate in fertilization. This finding may contribute to resolving the question on how the fusion of gametes happens in gall mites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research in Mites Associated with Trees)
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