Oribatida mites: Fast runners and slow crawlers

Microhabitats often consist of a complexity of organism species. Under suitable conditions, samples can be kept „alive“ for months and even for years by regularly adding moisture and organic tissue, in case of my sample of this footage: patato pieces.

 

 

Mites of the Oribatida and their different ways of locomotion. Copyrights: Stefan F. Wirth, Berlin April 2019. Please give the video a like on youtube too.

 

Soil samples from island Norderney

 

This soil sample was collected in summer 2018 on the North Sea island Usedom during my participation at the „Geo Tag der Natur“. It contained several specimens of the predatory chilopode Lithobius sp. and pieces of rotting wood, moss and forestground, everything collected under rotting treetrunks and tree branches. The samples additionally contained the carabid beetle Pterosticus cf. niger and ants of genus Lasius. Samples were collected in a small forest area with wetland aspects. The soil quality was rather moist.

 

Astigmatid mites

 

I later added potato pieces and regularly some water droplets to the sample with still living big arthropods/ insects. After some weeks, specimens of the astigmatid mite Acodyledon cf. schmitzi developed on dryer areas of the potato pieces. These mites were presumably phoretic associates of the carabid beetles. They died out after several months, after the sample had dried out a little bit and may be due to changes of the room temperature during winter time.

 

Oribatida

 

Now, almost a year later, the micro habitat is inhabited by mites of the Oribatida in greater numbers of specimens of at least three species: Nothrus sp. (genus not yet clarified), Nothrus palustris (already found for the first time shortly after the sample collection) and a species of Phthiracarida.

 

Locomotion and biodiversity

 

Purpose of the short film is to show different organisms, cultured after about a year in this sample: mites, nematodes, collembolans and microorganisms, fungae and bacteria. Of the bigger arthropods/insects, only one Lithobius species survived until now.  Also the diversity of ways of locomotion in different oribatid species is emphasized: There are slow crawlers (Nothrus) and fast runners (Phthiracarida).

 

Berlin, April 2019, Copyrights Stefan F. Wirth