Taxonomical study of oribatid mites from Taiwan (Acarina: Astigmata) (I)

This study treats 76 species, in which 58 species and 14 genera are described as new. The species are arranged in 28 families and 56 genera. The oribatid or cryptostigmatid mites are cosmopolitan group of more than 6500 species relegated to approximate 700 genera and 134 families. The body length of most oribatid species ranges 300-1200 µ. The oribatid mites are darkly coloured and covered with a rigid exoskelecton. The life cycle consists of egg, larva, protonymph, tritonymph, deutonymph and adult. These mites are best known as inhabitants of litter and upper soil strata, their small size and shunning of light caused them to receive little attention for many years. In recently studies of soil fauna, it has been shown that is an economic importance for human, i.e. many species feed on surface plant detritus, and may therefore play a major role in maintaining the fertility of soils; they could become an indicator of soil physical and chemical characters. Some species have also been shown to act as vectors of various tapewonns; they feed almost exclusively on tyroglyphid mites and attack the parasitic hymenopteran, Polynotus zosini; and several species are associated with plant, they have been reported to damage the leaf, the foot and the stem of potato, strawberry, turlip, citrus and mushroom. Systematic studies of these mites are scarcely found in Taiwan. The present paper deals with 76 species, 56 genera in 28 families, among them, 58 species and 14 genera are described as new. The author hopes that this study constitutes an example to show that the wealth of fascinating information could be gained and also hopes that this finding might be useful for elucidating the taxonomy of oribatid mites in Taiwan