The Taxonomy, Distribution, and Developmental Stages of Water Mites Collected in Central and North Central Ohio
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THE TAXONOMY, DISTRIBUTION, AND DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF WATER MITES COLLECTED IN CENTRAL AND NORTH CENTRAL OHIO DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By ROBERT MERRILL CROWELL, A.B., M.A. The Ohio State University 1957 Approved by: Adviser Department of Zoology and Entomology ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his thanks to those persons who have facilitated the pursuit of this project. I am especially grateful to the several Individuals, students, and colleagues who have contributed specimens for use in the study. The cooperation of members of the staff of the Chicago Natural History Museum, in making available Iden tified material from the Huth Marshall Collection, is acknowledged with appreciation. I should like to thank Dr. C. B. Philip and the editors of The Scientific Monthly for permission to quote the passage included in the epilogue. Thanks are due also to Hand McNally and Company for permission to reproduce the copyrighted map of Ohio, Figure 18. The following sources have supplied funds through grants-in-aid which have assisted in financing various phases of the project: The Ohio Academy of Science, The William H. Wilson Awards (College of Wooster), and the Professional Development Fund (St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y.). This assistance Is deeply appreciated. il ill Finally, I should like to acknowledge with thanks the guidance and counsel of Dr. Carl E. Venard in the course of this work. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER - PAGE INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1 I. GENERAL SYSTEMATICS OF THE WATER MITES AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE................ 3 II. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WATER MITES . 10 III. THE LIFE CYCLE OF WATER M I T E S ................. 22 IV. THE OCCURRENCE OF WATER MITES ON INSECTS . 30 V. COLLECTION AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS . 39 VI. SYSTEMATIC RECORD OF OHIO WATER MITES .... 53 - Family Hydrachnidae ...................... 53 Family Eylaidae............................ 67 Family Thyasidae ................ 7b Family Hydryphantidae...................... 81 Family Hydrodromidae...................... 91 Family Lebertiidae ...................... 96 Family Torrenticolidae................... 100 Family Limnesiidae....................... 107 Family Hygrobatidae . ................... 110 iv TABLE OP CONTENTS (Continued) Family Pionidae........................... Ill; Family Arrenuridae ..................... 138 Unassignable material..................... li|.l Additional r e c o r d s ....................... H 4.I SUMMARY..................................... IIOj. LITERATURE C I T E D ........................... 1^$ ILLUSTRATIONS ............................. 1$5 EPILOGUE ................................. 18 k AUTOBIOGRAPHY...............................185 v LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I. Summary of Infestation of Insects with Water Mites (Gibraltar Island and Vicinity. June July, 195^4-)............................ 33 vi LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 1•i. _ 17. Structural characteristics of water mites .......................... 157 18. Map of Ohio showing distribution of collections .................... 159 19 - 22. Collecting equipment and techniques 159 23. Specimen of Ranatra sp. heavily para sitized by Hydrachna magniscutata 159 2k - 38. Hydrachna magnlflcutata............ 162 39 - ip.. H. rotunda ..... .............. 165 k2 - 56. H. baculcscu^ata , ................ 165 .97 - 76. Eylais extendens .................. 169 77 - 89. Thyas stolli ...................... 169 90 - 97. Hydryphantes ruber ................ 172 98 - 105. H. waynensis . ................ 172 106 - 115. Hydrodroma despiciens ....... 175 116 - 119. Lebertia porosa . .............. 175 120 - 122. Torrenticola indistincta .......... 175 123 “ 125. T. bittikoferae .................. 175 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS (Continued) 126 - 131. Limneaia u n d u l a t a ................178 132 - 136. Hygrobatea longlpalpis........... 1?8 137 - 114.1 . Tiphya torria var. amerlcanua . 178 lij.2 - l£0. Piona rotunda ....................1®1 l£l - 159. P. reighardl................. * • * 1®1 160 - 167. P. naplo ......................1®3 .168. Arrenurus latlcornis .............. 183 169 - 170. A. m a r a h a l l a e .......... 183 viii INTRODUCTION The water mites are a little-known group of arthro pods of wide occurrence. They may be found In almost all types of aquatic habitats. As adults they are most abundant In vernal ponds and in the littoral zone of larger bodies of water. They may also be found in rivers and streams and along rubble beaches. As larvae they are often observed parasitizing aquatic and semi-aquatic Insects. The lack of knowledge about the group is sometimes accounted for by reference to their small size and obscure habits. However, they exceed most of the protozoa and many of the trematodes in size and are certainly more obvious than the Individuals of both of these groups which are much better known. Their lack of economic importance has been cited as an explanation of the absence of information about them. A demonstration by Uchida and Miyazaki (1935) of the water mites as a potential biologi cal control agent of anophellne mosquitoes indicates that they may have unrecognized economic significance. The occurrence of water mites as parasites of noxious insects suggests possibilities for research and investigation of problems in basic biology. Whatever the explanation for the paucity of Infor- mation may be, it is true that only six American investi gators have published on the water mites within the past ten years. Not since Miller's Introductory Study of the Acarlna, or Mites, of Ohio in 1925 has there been a paper indicating the hydracarinid fauna of Ohio. Miller's listings included nine species of water mites. The writer's aim in the present investigation has been twofold. First, I have endeavored to expand the knowledge of the Ohio fauna through collection and identi fication of water mites in the central and north central regions of the state. Secondly, I have attempted to present general and systematic information about the group in such a manner that it can be utilized by the general biologist in identifying water mites which he may collect. Anatomical structure of mites and methods of collection and handling are considered in detail subse quently. Determinations have been made by the writer, based on comparisons with Identified material in the writer's collection or material loaned by the Chicago Natural History Museum. Chapters I to V inclusive cover various phases of general information about water mites. Chapter VI pre sents, In systematic order, descriptions and data con cerning the 19 species identified. Four of these are new species. Taxonomic features of all species which have been identified are illustrated. CHAPTER I GENERAL SYSTEMATICS OP THE WATER MITES AND REVIEW OP THE LITERATURE The water mites are an. ecological grouping of Acarina which appear to represent several phyletic lines. American authors have generally referred to them as the Hydracarina. European authors frequently use the term Hydrachnellae for this group. In such usages one must keep in mind the fact that neither of these terms repre sent taxonomic categories, although Pennak (1953) gives the term Hydracarina ordinal rank. Viets (1956) lists 2817 species of Hydrachnellae plus sub-species, species inquirendae and those of incertae sedis. Mitchell (1954)* whose check list represents the only modern attempt to examine the extent of work on North American water mites, lists 291 Species which have been reported from this continent. The water mites have generally been considered among the prostigmatid mites of the sub-order Trombidi- formes (see Viets, 1936:40)• However tracheal stigmata have been demonstated In only a few species, and critical study of tracheal systems is needed to aid in establishing 3 k •--------------------------- this relationship. Until such information is available such relationship can be only speculation. Attempts to arrange the world fauna in a phylo genetic classification have not been entirely satisfactory, and the schemes in current use remain largely artificial. Modern classification of the water mites has evolved over a period of nearly 200 years, although the first authentic reference to a water mite is slightly older than that. According to Soar and Williamson (1925: 1) in 1730 Johann Leonhard Frisch described and illustrated “a little red water-spider which obtains nutriment by sucking the body of the Wasserlaus.n Seven years later, in 1737, Boer- haave's publication of Jan Swammerdam's manuscripts ’•showed that he had observed a water scorpion (Nepa) with what looked like an egg attached, but which on being opened showed a spider-like creature (nymph)” (Soar and Williamson, loc. cit.). It appears that 0. F. Mflller (1776)> in a paper not seen by the writer, attempted the first organization of the known species (then numbering I4.0 ) into groups. His grouping, based on the number of eyes, is outlined by Soar and Williamson (1925: 36). Originally he arranged the mites into two groups: Oculis duobus and Oculis pluribus. Subsequently he divided them into: a. Oculis binis, subdivided into (1) Caudatae, (2) Furcatae, 5 (3) Postice pilosae, and (4) glabrae; b. Oculis quator; c. Oculis sex. About 1800 Latreille published a series of papers in which he assigned generic names to the known water mites and in 1802 grouped them in one family which he named Hydrachnellae