Zerconid mites (Acari, Zerconidae) in İstanbul,with four new records for the Turkish fauna

Abstract

According to recent molecular systematic studies, the family Zerconidae belongs to suborder Monogynaspida, cohort Gamasina, and superfamily Zerconoidea (Sikora, 2014). Zerconid mites are important members of the soil fauna, colonizing various soil substrates (Karaca and Urhan, 2015a). They are free-living and mostly associated with humus, soil, decomposed litter, leaf mold, plant parts, and mosses (Urhan, 2010a). Their body lengths vary between 200 and 700 µm. These small, predatory mites feed on the eggs, larvae, and nymphs of other mites and springtails (Shereef et al., 1984;Martikainen and Huhta, 1990). Their dorsal shields are divided into two separate parts: the podonotum and opisthonotum. These mites are weakly sclerotized and their life cycle includes 4 active stages: larva, protonymph, deutonymph, and adult. The presence of zerconids in various soil substrates shows that they can be used as bioindicators for environmental changes (Sikora, 2014).The members of Zerconidae are well known from the Holarctic region (Krantz, 1978). However, in recent years there have been some locality reports from the alpine zone of Central Mexico and Taiwan (Ma et al., 2011;Ujvári, 2011aUjvári, , 2011bUjvári, , 2012. At present, approximately 40 genera, which comprise more than 400 species, are known worldwide. Only two genera, Prozercon and Zercon, and 88 species were known from Turkey until now (Karaca and Urhan, 2014, 2015b). In Turkey, the first study on zerconid mites was published by Polish acarologist Błaszak (1979) based on samples collected from the Amanos Mountains, Bolu Province, and the surrounding area, collected by Dominiak and Pawlowski. From 1992 to date, further studies about zerconids in Turkey have been made by

Zerconid mites (Acari, Zerconidae) from eastern parts of Aydın Province (Turkey), with description of Zercon karacasuensis sp. nov.

“…Prozercon demirsoyi Urhan and Ayyıldız, 1996 (Urhan and Ayyıldız, 1996), Giresun (Karaca and Urhan, 2015), İstanbul (Duran and Urhan, 2017) and Aydın (present study). Known distribution: Turkey (Urhan and Ayyıldız, 1996).…”

“…One female: moss samples, 37°40'31.14'' N, 28°38'32.64'' E, 638 m a.s.l., vicinity of Yazır neighborhood (Karacasu), 7 October 2019. Turkish distribution: Muğla (Urhan, 1998), Denizli, Aydın (Karaca, 2015), İstanbul (Duran and Urhan, 2017) and Balıkesir (Karaca, 2021). Known distribution: Turkey (Urhan, 1998) and Greece (Ujvári, 2008(Ujvári, , 2011.…”