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Mite (Acari) Communities Associated with 'Ohi'a, Metrosideros polymorpha (Myrtaceae), at Hono O Na Pali and Kui'a Natural Area Reserves on Kaua'i Island, Hawaiian Islands
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Swift, Sabina Fajardo Goff, Sabina F. M. Lee ( Madison Lee) |
| Copyright Year | 2001 |
| Abstract | Native `OA hi`a trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) were sampled for mites at two natural area reserves on Kaua`i Island, Kui`a and Hono O NaA Pali. Ninety samples of leaves, owers, bark, leaf litter, and soil under the `OA hi`a canopies were taken. Mites were extracted with use of Berlese-Tullgren funnels. One hundred sixty-four species were found, with the suborder Prostigmata having the greatest number of species (74), followed by Mesostigmata (43), Oribatida (43), and Astigmata with the least (4). Leaf litter, leaf litter with soil, and bark have the most species, composed of predaceous mesostigmatic and prostigmatic mites, but a certain amount of overlap of mite species between the leaf litter and soil habitats was observed. The predominance of Collembola in the soil and litter samples indicates a stable food source for the predaceous mites, partly explaining the high number of mites in those habitats. Oribatid mites were collected from leaves, but the species composition differs from that on owers and litter. Preliminary residency status of identi®ed taxa shows 12% endemic, 17% adventive, and 71% of unknown status. Mites or Acari are one of the largest and most biologically diverse groups of the arachnids, rivaling insects in the extent to which they have successfully colonized aquatic and terrestrial habitats (Evans 1992). Mites are an important part of the Hawaiian ecosystems. Although approximately 630 species have already been named and reported (Nishida 1997, Swift and Norton 1998), mites remain one of the most poorly known arthropod groups in the Islands. Studies of Acari associated with particular plants, soils, and litter habitats are relatively uncommon in the Hawaiian Islands. Although sampling of litter from an area or location to determine its mite fauna has been done, there has been little systematic collecting from speci®c plant hosts or habitats. In the early 1970s, the International Biological Program (IBP), through the Bishop Museum, sampled mites in soil and litter in an elevational transect of `OA hi`a forest east of Mauna Loa Trail on Hawai`i Island. From these collections, work by Radovsky and Tenorio (1981) on the soil Mesostigmata (Parasitiformes) and Collembola gave an indication of the diversity of soil and litter fauna living under the canopies of the native `OA hi`a. Gagne (1979) sampled arthropods including mites from `OA hi`a and Koa canopies with pyrethrum fogging. Unfortunately, the mites recovered from the canopy-sampling technique on `OA hi`a and Koa and most mites collected from the Maunaloa Trail transect currently remain unstudied. `OA hi`a, Metrosideros polymorpha (Gaud.) (Myrtaceae), is a dominant native Hawaiian tree found from sea level on wetter slopes up to 2590 m elevation. It is distributed on the six largest islands in areas with annual average rainfall ranging from 75 cm to 11.5 m (Corn and Heisy 1973). `OA hi`a was the subject of intensive research for over 20 yr because of periodic breakdown of stands known as `` `OA hi`a rainforest dieback'' (Mueller-Dombois 1985). 23 1 Funding for this research was provided by Hawai`i Department of Land and Natural Resources through a Natural Area Reserves Grant to the authors. Manuscript accepted 10 March 2000. 2 Department of Entomology, 3050 Maile Way, 310 Gilmore Hall, University of Hawai`i at MaAnoa, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822. Paci®c Science (2001), vol. 55, no. 1:23±40 : 2001 by University of Hawai`i Press |
| Starting Page | 23 |
| Ending Page | 40 |
| Page Count | 18 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1353/psc.2001.0008 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/28481/pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://muse.jhu.edu/article/28481/pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1353/psc.2001.0008 |
| Volume Number | 55 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
