Hitchhiking through life: a review of phoresy in Uropodina mites (Parasitiformes: Mesostigmata)

Figures & data

Figure 1. Phoretic Uropodina and their carriers. (a) deutonymph of Uropoda orbicularis Müller attached via pedicel to the hind femur of Onthophagus beetle (scale bar 500 µm). (b) detached deutonymph of Uroobovella sp., a species within a species complex of Uroobovella nova Oudemans, with helically coiled pedicel; a black arrow indicates carrier terminus of the pedicel (scale bar 500 µm). (c) pedicels and deutonymphs of U. orbicularis attached to the hind femur of Aphodius beetle; white arrows indicate pedicels of variable length (scale bar 1000 µm). (d) deutonymph of U. orbicularis; note the position of the mite - the legs of the second to fourth pair are hidden in the podofossae, and the legs of the first pair with elongated setae are exposed (scale bar 500 µm). (e) deutonymphs of U. orbicularis attached to a posterior part of the elytra of Aphodius fimetarius (Linnaeus). (f) deutonymphs of U. orbicularis attached to a posterior part of the elytra of Onthophagus coenobita (Herbst); note that the mites are attached close one to the other, although the remaining dorsal body side of the beetles is free (scale bar 2000 µm). (g) deutonymphs of Oodinychus ovalis (Koch) (= Trichouropoda ovalis (Koch)) attached to a lateral body part of the centipede (scale bar 1000 µm). (h) deutonymphs of Trichouropoda sociata (Vitzthum) attached to elytra of Plagionotus detritus (Linnaeus) (scale bar 2000 µm). (i) deutonymphs of T. sociata attached to the ventral surface of the prothorax of P. detritus (scale bar 1000 µm). (j) deutonymphs of Uroobovella sp. (a species within the complex species of Uroobovella nova) attached to the ventral prothorax of the Nicrophorus beetle (scale bar 2000 µm). All images were captured under the Olympus SZ61 stereomicroscope.

Table I. Categories of phoresy in Uropodina mites according to the carrier range.

	Categories of phoresy
Terminology according to Athias-Binche (1994)	euryxenous	eco-behavioural	stenoxenous	oioxenous
Uropodina species
Centrouropoda almerodai Hiramatsu & Hirschmann				+
Oodinychus ovalis (Koch) = Trichouropoda ovalis (Koch)		+
Trichouropoda australis Hirschmann		+
Trichouropoda bipilis (Vitzthum)		+
Trichouropoda fallax (Vitzthum)			+
Trichouropoda hirsuta Hirschmann		+
Trichouropoda lamellosa Hirschmann		+
Trichouropoda obscura (Koch)		+
Trichouropoda parisiana Hirschmann & Wiśniewski			+
Trichouropoda pecinai Hirschmann & Wiśniewski			+
Trichouropoda polytricha (Vitzthum)			+
Trichouropoda polytrichasimilis Hirschmann			+
Trichouropoda rackae Hirschmann			+
Trichouropoda shcherbakae Hirschmann			+
Trichouropoda sociata (Vitzthum)		+
Trichouropoda tuberosa Hirschmann & Zirngiebl-Nicol		+
Uroobovella americana Hirschmann			+
Uroobovella dryocoetes (Vitzthum)			+
Uroobovella ipidis (Vitzthum)		+
Uroobovella marginata (Koch)	+
Uroobovella nova (Oudemans) species complex:
• Uroobovella sp. 1				+
• Uroobovella sp. 2				+
• Uroobovella sp. 3				+
• Uroobovella sp. 4				+
• Uroobovella sp. 5				+
• Uroobovella nova sensu (Oudeman, 1902)				+
Uroobovella orri Hirschmann		+
Uroobovella pulchella (Berlese)		+
Uroobovella pyriformis (Berlese)		+
Uroobovella vinicolora (Vitzthum)		+
Uropoda copridis (Oudemans)			+
Uropoda orbicularis (Müller)		+
Uroseius brasiliensis Wiśniewski & Hirschmann			+
Uroseius philipsi Wiśniewski & Hirschmann			+
Uroseius rhinebeckensis Wiśniewski & Hirschmann			+

Table II. Examples of patterns of attachments in selected species of phoretic Uropodina.*

*We selected Uropodina species for which their location on the bodies of carriers was sufficiently well studied to determine their preferences for the dorsal/ventral and/or anterior/posterior sides of the body.

**Names of the attachment sites as originally used by the authors.

***Legend.

“X” means that deutonymphs of a given species have been found on the given body side.“X” means a body side with the highest number of phoretic deutonymphs. An empty cell means deutonymphs were not found on the given body side. X? means that we were not able to determine the presence of deutonymphs on this body side although highly probable. In such cases, the authors only gave distinct information about the most preferred body side by deutonymphs. For instance, if most of the deutonymphs were found on the elytral declivity, we were able to determine that the attachment pattern was dorsal and posterior. Nevertheless, the exact proportion of deutonymphs between sides was not possible to determine.

“ua” – means that we were unable to determine the proportion in deutonymphs between the anterior and posterior body parts. Some authors have recorded deutonymphs on the ventral thorax of their carrier, which allows us to recognise the proportion of deutonymphs between dorsal and ventral body sides but not between anterior and posterior body sides.

Colors: The orange colour means a weak preference of a mite for a given body side (up to 65% of all deutonymphs) compared to the other body side (the white color). In such a case, deutonymphs were fairly distributed between the analyzed dorsal/ventral or anterior/posterior body sides. The green colour means a preference of deutonymphs for this body side at the level of 66–79% of all deutonymphs. The blue colour means that the given body side was strongly preferred by deutonymphs (80–89% of all deutonymphs). The dark gray colour means that all or almost all deutonymphs were found on the given body side (≥90% of all collected deutonymphs).

Figure 2. Factors affecting the infestation of phoretic deutonymphs of Uropodina.

Athias-Binche F. 1994. La phorésie chez les acariens. Aspects adaptatifs et évolutifs. Perpignan, France: Editions du Castillet. p. 178.

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