Notes on the Uropodina mites (Acari: mesostigmata) of the Neotropical region

• Main Author: Kontschán, Jenő
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://publikacio.uni-eszterhazy.hu/2871/; http://publikacio.uni-eszterhazy.hu/2871/1/45-50_Kontschan.pdf

Uropodina mites are small (300-1200 µm long), reddish-brown animals, which occur in soil, moss, leaf-litter, dunk, tree-bark and lichen. These mites can be found on the whole world, we know species from the cold Antarctic region to the warm and wet tropical rain forests. The last summarizing work (Wiśniewski & Hirschmann 1993) contained more than 2000 species, but after the publication of this work more than 100 new species were described from all over the world. The adult Uropodina mites can be easily recognized by the shape of hypostomal setae, shape of tritosternum and epistome, the fusions of the sternal- ventral and anal shields and the shape of the genital shield of females and males.