Polar Biol DOI 10.1007/s00300-015-1858-x ORIGINAL PAPER Phytophagous mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) recorded from Svalbard, including the description of a new species 1 2 1 Agnieszka Kiedrowicz • Brian G. Rector • Krzysztof Zawierucha • 1 1 Wiktoria Szydło • Anna Skoracka Received: 4 May 2015 / Revised: 20 November 2015 / Accepted: 3 December 2015 Ó The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Eriophyoid mites (Eriophyoidea) are minute Keywords Arctic biology Á Eriophyidae Á Extreme phytophagous mites with great economic importance and environments Á Molecular taxonomy Á Herbivorous mites Á great invasive potential. In spite of their demonstrated DNA barcoding impact on ecosystem functions, knowledge of eriophyoid mite fauna in the Arctic is lacking. To date, only eight eriophyoid mite species have been recorded from the entire Introduction region north of the Arctic Circle. The Svalbard archipelago is one of the most biologically investigated Arctic areas. In polar regions, invertebrates occupy virtually all eco- Despite the fact that studies on invertebrates on Svalbard logical niches, from the deep ocean floor to the surfaces have been conducted for more than one hundred years, of glaciers, including extreme environments, such as eriophyoids have never been recorded before from this nunataks, tundra, and polar deserts, and they often con- place, except for one likely accidental record of a single stitute significant components of these harsh ecosystems specimen belonging to the genus Eriophyes. Thus, each (e.g., Dastych 1985; Janiec 1996; Dastych and Drummond new study of eriophyoid mite fauna in this region is 1996; Porazin´ska et al. 2004; Coulson et al. 2014b; important. In this paper, a new species of eriophyoid mite, Go´rska et al. 2014; Zawierucha et al. 2015). The past two Cecidophyes siedleckii n. sp., is described and illustrated. decades have seen a rapid increase in research interest Nucleotide sequence data (D2 region of 28S rDNA) were toward invertebrates in the Svalbard archipelago (e.g., employed to complement traditional morphological tax- Lippert et al. 2001; Coulson et al. 2003, 2014a; Johnsen onomy. The first record of Aceria saxifragae (Rostrup et al. 2014; Pilskog et al. 2014; Zawierucha et al. 2015). 1900) from Svalbard is also provided, with supplementary Currently, the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Svalbard morphological descriptions and illustrations. Eriophyoid consists of over 1000 species (Coulson et al. 2014b), and mites represent an important and underutilized taxon that is invertebrates are still being discovered in this region as available to ecologists studying the effects of changing both new records and new species to science (e.g., climatic conditions on Svalbard. Kaczmarek et al. 2012; Zawierucha 2013; Zawierucha et al. 2013; Dabert et al. 2014; Coulson et al. 2014a, b; Coulson et al. 2015). However, while the invertebrate fauna of Svalbard is among the best known for any Arctic region (Hodkinson 2013), only about 115 mite (Acari) & Agnieszka Kiedrowicz species have been recorded so far from the Svalbard [email protected] archipelago, with the majority of them being soil-inhab- iting Mesostigmata and Oribatida (Coulson et al. 2014b). 1 Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Mites occupy almost every habitat on Earth and are an Umultowska 89, 60-687 Poznan´, Poland important component of every environment. Many mite 2 USDA-ARS, Great Basin Rangelands Research Unit, species have evolved in associations with other organisms 920 Valley Road, Reno, NV 89512, USA (i.e., plant or animal hosts) that function as their 123 Polar Biol permanent or temporary habitats (Walter and Proctor Materials and methods 2013). Studies of parasitic or phytophagous organisms can provide insights into ecosystem functions. On Svalbard, A sample of Saxifraga oppositifolia L. 1753 was collected for example, a thorough understanding of the biotic con- in August 2011 from the northern coast of Hornsund, straints to the proliferation and spread of plant species, Wedel Jarlsberg Land, near the Stanisław Siedlecki Polish particularly non-native species, is important when con- Polar Station ‘‘Hornsund’’ (Fig. 1). The plant was allowed sidering their ability to compete for available habitat with to dry slowly, and dried plant parts were examined in the other plant species. laboratory under a stereomicroscope (Olympus SZ40) to Previous studies on the parasitic invertebrates in the check for the presence of eriophyoid mites or deformations Svalbard archipelago have focused mostly on Nematoda, of plant tissues typical of some eriophyoid mite infestations Cestoda, Acanthocephala, and Insecta (e.g., Hackman and (e.g., galls and enlarged buds). The dried plant parts were Nyholm 1968; Halvorsen and Bye 1999; Kuklin et al. then soaked in water for several hours and then re-exam- 2004; Stien et al. 2010), while a few studies have focused ined under a stereomicroscope. No plant deformations were on parasitic Acari associated with birds (Gwiazdowicz noted. During examination, all parts of plants were et al. 2012; Dabert et al. 2014) and polyphagous Bryobia destroyed to search for mites, including inside flowers and species (Coulson and Refseth 2004). Among phytophagous buds. Several eriophyoid mite specimens were found in this mites, only two species, both Tetranychidae (viz., Bryobia way; these were collected and mounted on microscope borealis Oudemans, 1930, and Bryobia praetiosa Koch, slides in Heinze and Hoyer media according to a standard 1836), have been recorded from Svalbard (Summerhayes protocol (de Lillo et al. 2010), and then studied taxonom- and Elton 1928;Thor1930, 1934; MacFadyen 1954; ically using a phase-contrast microscope (Olympus BX41). Coulson and Refseth 2004), notwithstanding the well-de- Morphological nomenclature follows Lindquist (1996), scribed flora of the Svalbard archipelago, which includes data measurements follow de Lillo et al. (2010), and sys- 173 recorded vascular plant species, as well as 373 moss tematic classification follows Rostrup (1900), Liro (1940) and 597 lichen species (Jo´nsdo´ttir 2005). Only one plant- and Amrine et al. (2003). Measurements refer to the feeding mite in the family Eriophyidae has ever been lengths of a given structure in micrometers unless other- recorded from Svalbard, a possibly accidental record of a wise stated. In the description of the new species, the single specimen belonging to the genus Eriophyes (Thor holotype female measurement precedes the corresponding 1934). In that case, neither the mite species nor its host range for paratypes (given in parentheses). Micrographs plant were identified. were made using an Olympus BX41 microscope and The eriophyoid mites are among the most economically Olympus Camedia C-5050 camera. important groups of phytophagous Acari (Lindquist and Several of the collected eriophyoid mite specimens were Amrine 1996). They cause direct damage to their host rinsed in 98 % alcohol and stored in 180 ll of ATL buffer plants and often transmit plant viruses (Duso et al. 2010). for several days. A nondestructive method of DNA Moreover, they have great invasive potential (Navia et al. extraction was applied, as described by Dabert et al. 2010) due to their ability to spread undetected via wind- (2008), using the DNeasy Blood & Tissue Kit (Qiagen, borne or human-mediated dispersal (Michalska et al. Hilden, Germany). Post-extraction, specimen cuticles were 2010). Given that the Arctic tundra is influenced by cli- transferred to 70 % ethanol and mounted on slides for mate change (e.g., Walkera et al. 2006; Coulson 2013), identification. A fragment of the D2 region of 28S ribo- greater knowledge of new phytophagous organisms and somal DNA (28S rDNA) was amplified using the primers potential vectors of plant disease in this region is urgently D1D2fw2 (Sonnenberg et al. 2007) and 28SR0990 (Mir- needed. onov et al. 2012). PCR was conducted in a 10 ll reaction Eriophyoid mite identification is often hampered by volume containing 5 ll of Type-it Multiplex PCR Master their minute size and structural simplicity (Lindquist and Mix (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), 50 pM of each primer, Amrine 1996), as well as the occurrence of cryptic lineages and 4 ll of DNA template. (Skoracka et al. 2012, 2013, 2014; Miller et al. 2013). In The thermal cycling profile consisted of an initial this paper, we describe a new species of eriophyoid plant- denaturation step of 5 min at 95 °C, followed by 35 cycles feeding mite, Cecidophyes siedleckii n. sp., using DNA of 30-s denaturation at 95 °C, 30-s annealing at 50 °C, and data (D2 region of 28S rDNA) to complement traditional 1-min extension at 72 °C, with a final step of 15 min at morphological taxonomy. In addition, we provide the first 72 °C. The reaction products were diluted by half, and 5 ll record of Aceria saxifragae (Rostrup, 1900) from Svalbard of each diluted PCR product was stained with the GelRed with supplementary morphological data to augment the Nucleic Acid Gel Stain (Biotium, Hayward, CA, USA) and original description. checked by electrophoresis on a 1 % agarose gel. The 123 Polar Biol Fig. 1 Studied area: a Svalbard Archipelago, scale bar 100 km; b Study area, scale bar 4km samples were sequenced with the following primers to calculate the Kimura-2-parameter (K2P) distances between obtain the D2 region of the 28S rDNA: universal forward sequences with MEGA6 software. primer D1D2fw2, specific forward primer Er28SF05, and specific reverse primer Er28SR05 (Szydło et al. 2015). Sequencing was performed using BigDye Terminator ver- Results sion 3.1 on an ABI Prism 3130XL Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). The forward Two different eriophyoid species were identified from the and reverse sequences were aligned and assembled with samples of S. oppositifolia based on morphological study: BioEdit version 7 software (Hall 1999). Trace files were A. saxifragae (Rostrup, 1900) and C. siedleckii n. sp. The aligned and edited with MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013). Four description of C.