Acarocenoses (Acariformes, Parasitiformes) in polar deserts. 1. Mite assemblages in the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. Structure of fauna and abundance [Russian]

摘要

The diversity of free-living mites (61 species) in polar deserts of Bol'shevik Island is similar to that of all insects and is two times greater than the diversity of such typical dwellers of High Arctic regions as collembolans. However, the mite diversity in the polar deserts is 1.5-2 times lower than that of particular faunas in the tundra. 78% of genera and 50% of families are represented by one species, but the genus Arctoseius by 12 species. Twenty-six species belong to the suborder Prostigmata, 20 to Mesostigmata, 10 to Cryptostigmata, and 5 to Astigmata. The most diverse are the families Ascidae (13 species), Eupodidae (8), Tydeidae (4), and Ceratozetidae (4). In the arctic polar deserts, the species richness of prostigmatic and mesostigmatic mites is similar to that in the tundra; the diversity of oribatids is 3-5 times lower. The total abundance of the mites in the arctic desert soils varies within the same range (50-2500 ind/dm(2)) as in the tundra; in zonal soils their numbers are nearly identical.