faunistic study of cryptostigmatic mites (acari: oribatida) in rasht township was conducted during 2008-2009. mites were extracted using berlese funnel from soil samples and cleared in lactophenol. cleared mites were mounted (in hoyer’s medium) on microscopic slides. in total, 15 species, 15 genera and 13 families of oribatid mites (acari: oribatida) were collected and identified. among the ide...

Two new oribatid mite species, Hymenobelba exclamationis and Pteramerus clypeatus spp. nov. (Ameridae), are described and illustrated based on specimens collected from mossy montane rainforest in the Malagasy Republic, Toamasina Province, Maromizaha forest. Both of them show a great variation of peculiar morphological features as having or not the costuliform prodorsal structure, the number and...

We are summarizing the current state of knowledge of the diversity and distribution of oribatid mites in 26 environments in northern Brazil and of a rain forest in Peru. The published studies were mostly concentrated in Central Amazon. Only one report is a result from an agricultural polyculture. We are providing the first lists of species for savannas and for the Brazilian states of Roraima an...

Two new species of oribatid mites of the genus Lasiobelba (Oribatida, Oppiidae), Lasiobelba (Lasiobelba) daamsae sp. n. and Lasiobelba (Antennoppia) nepalica sp. n., are described from eastern Nepal. Lasiobelba (L.) daamsae sp. n. is most similar to L. (L.) remota Aoki, 1959 and L. (L.) gibbosa (Mahunka, 1985), however, it differs from both by the anterior part of pedotecta I specifically curve...

Parthenogenetic lineages may colonize marginal areas of the range of related sexual species or coexist with sexual species in the same habitat. Frozen-Niche-Variation and General-Purpose-Genotype are two hypotheses suggesting that competition and interclonal selection result in parthenogenetic populations being either genetically diverse or rather homogeneous. The cosmopolitan parthenogenetic o...