Uropodine mite communities (Acari: Mesostigmata

ABSTRACT. Knowledge of uropodine mite communities in birds ’ nests in Poland and surrounding areas is very poor. We therefore conducted a survey of 338 nests belonging to 36 bird species, and found that they contained 28 species of Uropodina. The most frequent species were Trichouropoda orbicularis, Apionoseius infirmus, Uroobo-vella pyriformis, Uropoda orbicularis, Nenteria pandioni, and T. ovalis. The dominant species were T. orbicularis, and U. pyriformis, which constituted up to 68 % of the total specimens. The majority of species of these mites repro-duce sexually. The species whose populations consist only of females, reproducing by thelytoky, are rather rare. There is distinct variation in the species composition and dominance structure of uropodine communities in the nests of particular bird species, which seems to be largely caused by differing types of nests. The most species-rich uropodine communities were found in large, perennial nests (white stork and raptors), the poorest ones (usually one or two species) occurred in the material collected from nest boxes. KEY WORDS: mites, Uropodina, nesting biology, nest of birds, unstable microhabitat