43-425: Prostigmata is a suborder of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes , which contains the "sucking" members of the "true mites" ( Acariformes ). Many species are notorious pests on plants . Well-known examples of prostigmatan plant parasites are species of the gall mites ( Eriophyidae , e.g. the redberry mite Acalitus essigi ), Tarsonemidae (e.g. the cyclamen mite, Steneotarsonemus pallidus ), and
86-425: A cephalothorax (with no separate head) or prosoma, and an opisthosoma or abdomen. Segmentation has almost entirely been lost and the prosoma and opisthosoma are fused, only the positioning of the limbs indicating the location of the segments. At the front of the body is the gnathosoma or capitulum. This is not a head and does not contain the eyes or the brain, but is a retractable feeding apparatus consisting of
129-408: A prion disease of sheep. The mite Varroa destructor is a serious pest of honey bees , contributing to colony collapse disorder in commercial hives . This organism is an obligate external parasite, able to reproduce only in bee colonies. It directly weakens its host by sucking up the bee's fat, and can spread RNA viruses including deformed wing virus . Heavy infestation causes the death of
172-583: A colony, generally over the winter. Since 2006, more than 10 million beehives have been lost. Various mites prey on other invertebrates and can be used to control their populations. Phytoseiidae , especially members of Amblyseius , Metaseiulus , and Phytoseiulus , are used to control pests such as spider mites. Among the Laelapidae , Gaeolaelaps aculeifer and Stratiolaelaps scimitus are used to control fungus gnats , poultry red mites and various soil pests. Mites were first observed under
215-722: A few are associated with allergies or may transmit diseases. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of mites is called acarology . The mites are not a defined taxon, but is used for two distinct groups of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes . The phylogeny of the Acari has been relatively little studied, but molecular information from ribosomal DNA is being extensively used to understand relationships between groups. The 18 S rRNA gene provides information on relationships among phyla and superphyla, while
258-522: A few phylogenomic studies have found strong support for monophyly of Acari and a sister relationship between Acariformes and Parasitiformes, although this finding has been questioned, with other studies suggesting that this likely represents a long branch attraction artefact. Mites are tiny members of the class Arachnida ; most are in the size range 250 to 750 μm (0.01 to 0.03 in) but some are larger and some are no bigger than 100 μm (0.004 in) as adults. The body plan has two regions ,
301-439: A million or more species as yet undescribed. The tropical species Archegozetes longisetosus is one of the strongest animals in the world, relative to its mass (100 μg): It lifts up to 1,182 times its own weight, over five times more than would be expected of such a minute animal. A mite also holds a speed record: for its length, Paratarsotomus macropalpis is the fastest animal on Earth. The mites living in soil consist of
344-608: A more varied lifestyle (e.g. Tydeidae ) or switch their food sources as they mature (e.g. Erythraeidae ). The suborder also includes the family Halacaridae (marine mites). Some of the Prostigmata parasitizing vertebrates are of medical relevance due to causing skin diseases in humans. These include for example harvest mites ("chiggers") of the Trombiculidae . Prostigmata are usually 0.1–2 mm long, though some giant red velvet mites can reach 16 mm. They have
387-765: A network of sinuses and most mites lacks a heart, movement of fluid being driven by the contraction of body muscles. But ticks, and some of the larger species of mites, have a dorsal, longitudinal heart. Gas exchange is carried out across the body surface, but many species additionally have between one and four pairs of tracheae . The excretory system includes a nephridium and one or two pairs of Malpighian tubules . Several families of mites, such as Tetranychidae, Eriophyidae, Camerobiidae, Cunaxidae, Trombidiidae, Trombiculidae, Erythraeidae and Bdellidae have silk glands used to produce silk for various purposes. Additionally, water mites (Hydrachnidia) produce long thin threads that may be silk. The sexes are separate in mites; males have
430-418: A pair of testes in the mid-region of the body, each connected to the gonopore by a vas deferens , and in some species there is a chitinous penis ; females have a single ovary connected to the gonopore by an oviduct , as well as a seminal receptacle for the storage of sperm . In most mites, sperm is transferred to the female indirectly; the male either deposits a spermatophore on a surface from which it
473-716: A range of different body forms and colours. As mites, most of them have eight legs (six in their larval stage). However, the Eriophyoidea instead have four legs, all positioned at the front of a long, worm-like body. The name "Prostigmata" comes from mites of this group having spiracles (stigmata) on the prodorsum, usually between the chelicerae or on its lateral margins. Many prostigmatans live in soil. These occur in soils as varied as agricultural fields, burned prairies , tidal marshlands, drained lake beds with algal blooms , and Antarctic soils. Other prostigmatans are aquatic. The group includes Hydrachnidia , commonly known as
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#1732775361238516-448: A range of taxa. Oribatida and Prostigmata are more numerous in soil than Mesostigmata, and have more soil-dwelling species. When soil is affected by an ecological disturbance such as agriculture, most mites (Astigmata, Mesostigmata and Prostigmata) recolonise it within a few months, whereas Oribatida take multiple years. Many mites are parasitic on plants and animals. One family of mites, Pyroglyphidae , or nest mites, live primarily in
559-542: A small scale, walking is used to access other suitable locations in the immediate vicinity. Some species mount to a high point and adopt a dispersal posture and get carried away by the wind, while others waft a thread of silk aloft to balloon to a new position. Parasitic mites use their hosts to disperse, and spread from host to host by direct contact. Another strategy is phoresy ; the mite, often equipped with suitable claspers or suckers, grips onto an insect or other animal, and gets transported to another place. A phoretic mite
602-580: Is adjusted in more modern treatments. They contain a few of the little-known " Endeostigmata " – apparently an assemblage of several specialized but only distantly related lineages – which for the most part appear to be Sarcoptiformes. In addition, the Trombidiformes include the bulk of the presumed group of mites called "Actinedida" . This taxon is still commonly encountered in systematic treatments. However, modern cladistic studies time and again fail to find any monophyletic group corresponding to
645-440: Is just a hitch-hiker and does not feed during the time it is carried by its temporary host. These travelling mites are mostly species that reproduce rapidly and are quick to colonise new habitats. Mites are tiny and apart from those that are of economic concern to humans, little studied. The majority are beneficial, living in the soil or aqueous environments and assisting in the decomposition of decaying organic material, as part of
688-491: Is located on the ventral surface between the fourth pair of legs. Some species have one to five median or lateral eyes but many species are blind, and slit and pit sense organs are common. Both body and limbs bear setae (bristles) which may be simple, flattened, club-shaped or sensory. Mites are usually some shade of brown, but some species are red, orange, black or green, or some combination of these colours. Many mites have stigmata (openings used in respiration). In some mites,
731-405: Is picked up by the female, or he uses his chelicerae or third pair of legs to insert it into the female's gonopore. In some of the Acariformes , insemination is direct using the male's penis. The spermatophora in all mites are aflagellate. The eggs are laid in the substrate , or wherever the mite happens to live. They take up to six weeks to hatch, according to species, with the next stage being
774-539: The ITS2 , and the 18S ribosomal RNA and 28S ribosomal RNA genes, provide clues at deeper levels. The mite fossil record is sparse, due to their small size and low preservation potential. The oldest fossils of acariform mites are from the Rhynie Chert , Scotland, which dates to the early Devonian , around 410 million years ago while the earliest fossils of Parasitiformes are known from amber specimens dating to
817-417: The carbon cycle . Two species live on humans, namely Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis ; both are frequently referred to as eyelash mites. The majority of mite species are harmless to humans and domestic animals , but a few species can colonize mammals directly, acting as vectors for disease transmission, and causing or contributing to allergenic diseases. Mites which colonize human skin are
860-638: The chelicerae , the pedipalps and the oral cavity. It is covered above by an extension of the body carapace and is connected to the body by a flexible section of cuticle . Two-segmented chelicerae is the ancestral condition in Acariformes, but in more derived groups they are single-segmented. And three-segmented chelicerae is the ancestral condition in Parasitiformes, but has been reduced to just two segments in more derived groups. The pedipalps differ between taxa depending on diet; in some species
903-516: The microscope by the English polymath Robert Hooke . In his 1665 book Micrographia , he stated that far from being spontaneously generated from dirt, they were "very prettily shap'd Insects". In 1898, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a satirical poem, "A Parable", with the conceit of some cheese mites disputing the origin of the round cheddar cheese in which they all lived. The world's first science documentary featured cheese mites , seen under
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#1732775361238946-737: The spider mites of the Tetranychidae (e.g. the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae ). Other Prostigmata live as parasites on vertebrates (e.g. Demodex mites of the Demodecidae ) or invertebrates (e.g. Polydiscia deuterosminthurus of the Tanaupodidae or the honeybee tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi , of the Tarsonemidae). There are also some forms (e.g. Smarididae ) that are predators of small invertebrates – including smaller Prostigmata – yet others have
989-483: The "Actinedida". Thus, they appear to be an evolutionary grade rather than an evolutionary lineage, united not by their apomorphies but by the lack of such characters that have evolved after the Acariformes separated from the Parasitiformes . Thus, the "Actinedida" seem to be a massively paraphyletic " wastebin taxon ", uniting all Acariformes that are not "typical" Oribatida and Astigmata . The Prostigmata present their own taxonomic and systematic problems even in
1032-492: The appendages resemble legs while in others they are modified into chelicerae-like structures. The oral cavity connects posteriorly to the mouth and pharynx . Most mites have four pairs of legs (two pairs in Eriophyoidea ), each with six segments, which may be modified for swimming or other purposes. The dorsal surface of the body is clad in hardened tergites and the ventral surface by hardened sclerites ; sometimes these form transverse ridges. The gonopore (genital opening)
1075-642: The body of honey bees , and Acarapis woodi (family Tarsonemidae ) lives in their tracheae . Hundreds of species are associated with other bees, mostly poorly described. They attach to bees in a variety of ways. For example, Trigona corvina workers have been found with mites attached to the outer face of their hind tibiae. Some are thought to be parasites, while others are beneficial symbionts . Mites also parasitize some ant species, such as Eciton burchellii . Most larvae of Parasitengona are ectoparasites of arthropods, while later life stages in this group tend to shift to being predators. Plant pests include
1118-407: The cause of several types of itchy skin rashes, such as gamasoidosis , rodent mite dermatitis , grain itch , grocer's itch , and scabies ; Sarcoptes scabiei is a parasitic mite responsible for scabies, which is one of the three most common skin disorders in children. Demodex mites, which are common cause of mange in dogs and other domesticated animals, have also been implicated in
1161-428: The disease rickettsialpox . House dust mites , found in warm and humid places such as beds, cause several forms of allergic diseases, including hay fever , asthma and eczema , and are known to aggravate atopic dermatitis . Among domestic animals , sheep are affected by the mite Psoroptes ovis which lives on the skin, causing hypersensitivity and inflammation. Hay mites are a suspected reservoir for scrapie ,
1204-517: The following taxonomy for Prostigmata, including four infraorders: (Also known as Eleutherengonides ) Mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods ). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes , which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari . However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as each other's closest relative within Arachnida, rendering
1247-528: The group non- monophyletic . Most mites are tiny, less than 1 mm (0.04 in) in length, and have a simple, unsegmented body plan. The small size of most species makes them easily overlooked; some species live in water, many live in soil as decomposers , others live on plants, sometimes creating galls , while others are predators or parasites . This last type includes the commercially destructive Varroa parasite of honey bees , as well as scabies mites of humans. Most species are harmless to humans, but
1290-417: The human skin disease rosacea , although the mechanism by which demodex contributes to the disease is unclear. Ticks are well known for carrying diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever . Chiggers are known primarily for their itchy bite , but they can also spread disease in some limited circumstances, such as scrub typhus . The house-mouse mite is the only known vector of
1333-530: The microscope; the short film was shown in London's Alhambra music hall in 1903, causing a boom in the sales of simple microscopes. Endeostigmata Endeostigmata is a suborder of acariform mites. There are about ten families in Endeostigmata. The grouping is strongly suspected to be paraphyletic , containing unrelated early diverging lineages of mites. Source: This article about
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1376-502: The mid- Cretaceous , around 100 million years ago. Most fossil acarids are no older than the Tertiary (up to 65 mya ). Members of the superorders Opilioacariformes and Acariformes (sometimes known as Actinotrichida) are mites, as well as some of the Parasitiformes (sometimes known as Anactinotrichida). Recent genetic research has suggested that Acari is polyphyletic (of multiple origins). A study using molecular data from
1419-399: The minor and quite ancient lineage Sphaerolichida . The trombidiform mites are possibly the most promising approach to untangle the systematics , taxonomy and phylogeny of the notoriously complex Acariformes. Trombidiformes and the other acariform clade, Sarcoptiformes , were formerly considered suborders but this does not allow for a sufficiently precise classification of the mites and
1462-752: The mitochondria and nucleus recovered Acariformes as sister to the Solifugae (camel spiders) and Parasitiformes as sister to the Pseudoscorpionida , with other arachnid orders separating these two groupings on the phylogenetic tree, as shown below. Palpigradi False scorpions [REDACTED] Ixodida (ticks) [REDACTED] Parasitic mites, inc. Varroa [REDACTED] Trombidiformes (chiggers, velvet mites, etc) [REDACTED] Sarcoptiformes (dust & fur mites, etc) [REDACTED] Camel spiders [REDACTED] other Arachnids including spiders and scorpions However,
1505-612: The most diverse and successful of all invertebrate groups. They have exploited a wide array of habitats , and because of their small size go largely unnoticed. They are found in freshwater (e.g. the water mites or Hydrachnidia ) and saltwater (most Halacaridae ), in the soil, in forests, pastures, agricultural crops, ornamental plants, thermal springs and caves. They inhabit organic debris of all kinds and are extremely numerous in leaf litter. They feed on animals, plants and fungi and some are parasites of plants and animals. Some 48,200 species of mites have been described, but there may be
1548-506: The nests of birds and other animals. These mites are largely parasitic and consume blood , skin and keratin . Dust mites , which feed mostly on dead skin and hair shed from humans instead of consuming them from the organism directly, evolved from these parasitic ancestors. Ticks are a prominent group of mites that are parasitic on vertebrates, mostly mammal and birds, feeding on blood with specialised mouthparts. Parasitic mites sometimes infest insects. Varroa destructor attaches to
1591-640: The redefined monophyletic delimitation . They are variously subdivided into the Anystina and Eleutherengona , and Eupodina . The delimitation and interrelationships of these groups are entirely unclear; while most analyses find one of the latter two but not the other to be a subgroup of the Anystina, neither of these mutually contradicting hypotheses is very robust; possibly this is a simple error because phylogenetic software usually fails in handling non- dichotomous phylogenies. Consequently it may be best for
1634-564: The six-legged larvae. After three moults, the larvae become nymphs, with eight legs, and after a further three moults, they become adults. Longevity varies between species, but the lifespan of mites is short compared to many other arachnids. Mites occupy a wide range of ecological niches . For example, Oribatida mites are important decomposers in many habitats. They eat a wide variety of material including living and dead plant and fungal material, lichens and carrion; some are predatory , though no oribatid mites are parasitic . Mites are among
1677-477: The so-called spider mites (family Tetranychidae ), thread-footed mites (family Tarsonemidae ), and the gall mites (family Eriophyidae ). Among the species that attack animals are members of the sarcoptic mange mites (family Sarcoptidae ), which burrow under the skin. Demodex mites (family Demodecidae ) are parasites that live in or near the hair follicles of mammals , including humans. Being unable to fly, mites need some other means of dispersal. On
1720-423: The soil-dwelling Prostigmata, the smaller predatory species have nematodes as an important part of their diet. They may also feed occasionally on fungi, piercing fungal hyphae using stylet chelicerae. Larger predatory species, such as members of Bdelloidea and Trombidoidea , feed on other arthropods or their eggs. The Prostigmata make up the bulk of the acariform clade Trombidiformes , which also contains
1763-505: The stigmata are associated with peritremes: paired, tubular, elaborated extensions of the tracheal system. The higher taxa of mites are defined by these structures: Mite digestive systems have salivary glands that open into the preoral space rather than the foregut. Most species carry two to six pairs of salivary glands that empty at various points into the subcheliceral space. A few mite species lack an anus: they do not defecate during their short lives. The circulatory system consists of
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1806-516: The time being to consider each of the three main prostigmatan lineages to be equally distinct from the other two, not including either Eleutherengona or Eupodina in the Anystina in accord with the traditional view – the suborder Anystina are here considered the largest possible clade containing the Anystidae but no taxon assigned to the other two suborders. As of May 2022, Catalogue of Life and Integrated Taxonomic Information System accept
1849-485: The water mites. Hydrachnidia live in many kinds of freshwater habitats, including lentic (e.g. lakes, ponds), lotic (e.g. rivers, streams), springs and interstitial waters. Also in the Prostigmata are family Halacaridae, which are mostly marine. Other habitats of Prostigmata include caves, algae, mosses, lichens, shrubs and trees. Prostigmata have a wide range of diets, including species that are predators , herbivores , fungivores , microbivores and parasites . Among
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