Oribatid mite fauna of three members of the lichen genus Cladonia in Europe - observations on species richness, endophagous juveniles and their morphology

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023272%3A_____%2F25%3A10136928" target="_blank" >RIV/00023272:_____/25:10136928 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216208:11310/25:10505493

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.24349/nalv-gpxm" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.24349/nalv-gpxm</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.24349/nalv-gpxm" target="_blank" >10.24349/nalv-gpxm</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Oribatid mite fauna of three members of the lichen genus Cladonia in Europe - observations on species richness, endophagous juveniles and their morphology

Original language description

Lichen-mite interactions have generally been acknowledged for a long time and yet, despite their ubiquity they are rarely studied in detail. Oribatid mites occur on and in various lichens and prior research has shown that mites use them as shelter and food source. To gain deeper insights into specific mite-lichen relationships, we investigated the oribatid mite fauna of three lichens from the genus Cladonia, C. coniocraea, C. norvegica and C. rubrotincta, from four European countries. In total, we found 61 oribatid mite species in all samples, from which 28 are common in all investigated lichen species. Most abundant were Carabodes areolatus, C. labyrinthicus, C. marginatus, C. subarcticus, Melanozetes mollicomus and Neobrachychthonius marginatus magnus. The lichen Cladonia rubrotincta is characterized by red spots on its vegetative structures, and these spots have been suggested to be the result of mite feeding activity. Our investigations of these red spots revealed signs of endophagous mite activity in approx. 75% of the cases; immature mite stages were found tunneling, feeding and living inside the lichens. Molecular genetic identification of these juveniles showed that Carabodes areolatus, C. labyrinthicus, C. marginatus and Mycobates carli use Cladonia rubrotincta as kindergarten. Additionally, we characterize the morphology of Carabodes ssp. and Mycobates carli juveniles in detail and show their adaptions to an endophagous lifestyle, e.g. stocky body, short legs, reduced trichobothria and a subterminally positioned anal orifice. We conclude that lichen-mite interactions are versatile and diverse. Based on our results, we suggest that Cladonia rubrotincta reacts with color changes to the feeding activity of immature mites. Mite feeding on lichens is generally common,although it remains to be tested whether all life stages can trigger phenotypic responses in their lichen food sources.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10613 - Zoology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Acarologia

ISSN

0044-586X

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

65

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

FR - FRANCE

Number of pages

32

Pages from-to

1092-1123

UT code for WoS article

999

EID of the result in the Scopus database

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