Marine mites (Halacaroidea: Acari): a geographical and ecological survey
In: Hydrobiologia. Springer: The Hague. ISSN 0018-8158; e-ISSN 1573-5117, more |  |
| Keywords | Ecology
Geography
Halacaridae Murray, 1877 [WoRMS]
Marine/Coastal | | Author keywords | Halacaridae (Atari), geography, ecology, antiquity, amphiatlantics |
| Abstract | Halacarid mites (Acari), with almost 700 species described, inhabit marine and freshwater habitats. The majority of genera are recorded from at least two ocean basins or continents. There is no evidence of endemic genera, in either littoral faunal provinces or in deep-sea regions. Copidognathus, a genus comprising 1/4 of all species described, is found in almost all geographic regions, depths and habitats. Other genera dominate or are restricted to cold waters, to warm waters or to distinct habitats.Corresponding habitats on either side of the boreal Atlantic Ocean harbour congeneric, identical, sibling or morphologically similar species. The fauna in the western Atlantic is less diverse than that in the eastern. Amphiatlantics are restricted to certain genera. Transatlantic distribution is independent of the niche inhabited. Of the marine halacarid species recorded from the boreal western Atlantic, 41% are amphiatlantics, while only one species is recorded from both the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The Caribbean and the Mediterranean faunas are dominated by genera in which amphiatlantics are unknown. Most of the Black Sea species of the genus Halacarellus also occur in the Baltic, North Sea or North Atlantic, whereas the Copidognathus fauna of the Black Sea is similar to that of the Mediterranean. Halacarids are thought to be an ancient taxon, with most genera probably having been present since the Mesozoic and with several species having an age of at least 50 million years. Evidence for their antiquity is found in the distributional pattern of marine and limnic genera and species, in the lack of endemic genera despite low fecundity and lack of dispersal stages, and in the fact that amphiatlantics are restricted to certain genera without relationships to the niches inhabited. |
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