Hymenoptera

K, Julia Baumann, 2024, An update on the knowledge about scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines, Acarologia 64 (1), pp. 3-17 : 7

Hymenoptera : Ants (Annex V, Annex VI and Annex VII)

Most scutacarids in associations with other animals are associated with ants (Baumann 2018), therefore it is not surprising that 10 of the 18 new phoretic scutacarid species (given Table in

1) also are associated with ants. Scutacaridae belong to the superfamily Pygmephoroidea , and within the superfamily they might be best adapted to the association with ants, as can be concluded based on a study of the myrmecophilous pygmephoroid species in Western Siberia by Khaustov and Tolstikov (2016). The respective work revealed that more than

70% of the found species indeed belonged to the family Scutacaridae (the remaining species belonged to Neopygmephoridae and Microdispidae ). The authors also found highly specific mite communities for most ant species, indicating a coevolution between mite lineages and ants.