MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME
Parasitengona, an ingroup of Trombidiformes, is characterised by a complex life cycle, in which the larval stage is parasitic on animals. Larvae of erythraeoideans or long-legged velvet mites, one ingroup of Parasitengona, parasitise euarthropodan hosts and have extremely long legs that confer them...
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Milano University Press
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia |
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| Online Access: | https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/23134 |
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| author | Sofía Arce FLORIAN BRAIG SIMON J. LINHART JÉHAN LE CADRE OLYMPIA SALVAMOSER PATRICK MÜLLER CAROLIN HAUG JOACHIM T. HAUG |
| author_facet | Sofía Arce FLORIAN BRAIG SIMON J. LINHART JÉHAN LE CADRE OLYMPIA SALVAMOSER PATRICK MÜLLER CAROLIN HAUG JOACHIM T. HAUG |
| author_sort | Sofía Arce |
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Parasitengona, an ingroup of Trombidiformes, is characterised by a complex life cycle, in which the larval stage is parasitic on animals. Larvae of erythraeoideans or long-legged velvet mites, one ingroup of Parasitengona, parasitise euarthropodan hosts and have extremely long legs that confer them the ability to walk fast. Representatives of Parasitengona in general, and Erythraeoidea in particular, are relatively abundant in the fossil record. Nonetheless, their studies have remained scarce, since, like in most mites, the characters needed for taxonomical identification are hidden within the amber piece. Here, we report 41 new erythraeoidean larvae from the Cretaceous Kachin amber and three specimens from Eocene Baltic amber. We also compare the shape of their habitus between extant and fossil specimens by applying elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA) to their redrawn outlines. According to the shape analysis, there is a certain level of overlap in the morphospace between extant and fossil specimens, but the difference in morphology was statistically significant, pointing to a separation between the two. This is supported by the fact that some morphological characteristics of fossil specimens are not present in extant representatives. Fossil erythraeoideans occupy the area of the morphospace with more elongated legs, which could be related to variations in the availability of their hosts or changes in microhabitat occupied by the mites, although bias in the fossil record cannot be ignored. Although preliminary, our findings demonstrate that quantitative morphological analysis can be applied to specimens of mites not preserved in the best of conditions that may not be of interest for taxonomic studies.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5c6b1a0273cf43528dcf496a76aa6d4c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0035-6883 2039-4942 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Milano University Press |
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| series | Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia |
| spelling | doaj-art-5c6b1a0273cf43528dcf496a76aa6d4c2025-08-20T03:25:59ZengMilano University PressRivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia0035-68832039-49422025-06-01131210.54103/2039-4942/23134MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIMESofía Arce0FLORIAN BRAIG1SIMON J. LINHART2https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6059-1910JÉHAN LE CADRE3https://orcid.org/0009-0007-7876-5512OLYMPIA SALVAMOSER4PATRICK MÜLLER5CAROLIN HAUG6JOACHIM T. HAUG7Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Independent ResearcherLudwig-Maximilians-Universität München Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Parasitengona, an ingroup of Trombidiformes, is characterised by a complex life cycle, in which the larval stage is parasitic on animals. Larvae of erythraeoideans or long-legged velvet mites, one ingroup of Parasitengona, parasitise euarthropodan hosts and have extremely long legs that confer them the ability to walk fast. Representatives of Parasitengona in general, and Erythraeoidea in particular, are relatively abundant in the fossil record. Nonetheless, their studies have remained scarce, since, like in most mites, the characters needed for taxonomical identification are hidden within the amber piece. Here, we report 41 new erythraeoidean larvae from the Cretaceous Kachin amber and three specimens from Eocene Baltic amber. We also compare the shape of their habitus between extant and fossil specimens by applying elliptical Fourier analysis (EFA) to their redrawn outlines. According to the shape analysis, there is a certain level of overlap in the morphospace between extant and fossil specimens, but the difference in morphology was statistically significant, pointing to a separation between the two. This is supported by the fact that some morphological characteristics of fossil specimens are not present in extant representatives. Fossil erythraeoideans occupy the area of the morphospace with more elongated legs, which could be related to variations in the availability of their hosts or changes in microhabitat occupied by the mites, although bias in the fossil record cannot be ignored. Although preliminary, our findings demonstrate that quantitative morphological analysis can be applied to specimens of mites not preserved in the best of conditions that may not be of interest for taxonomic studies. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/23134Erythraeoidea; Baltic amber; Kachin amber; elliptic Fourier transformation. |
| spellingShingle | Sofía Arce FLORIAN BRAIG SIMON J. LINHART JÉHAN LE CADRE OLYMPIA SALVAMOSER PATRICK MÜLLER CAROLIN HAUG JOACHIM T. HAUG MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia Erythraeoidea; Baltic amber; Kachin amber; elliptic Fourier transformation. |
| title | MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME |
| title_full | MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME |
| title_fullStr | MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME |
| title_full_unstemmed | MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME |
| title_short | MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION OF LONG-LEGGED VELVET MITE LARVAE IN DEEP TIME |
| title_sort | morphological variation of long legged velvet mite larvae in deep time |
| topic | Erythraeoidea; Baltic amber; Kachin amber; elliptic Fourier transformation. |
| url | https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/RIPS/article/view/23134 |
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