Mites: Ecological and Evolutionary Analyses of Life-History Patterns

375 Pages·1994·10.75 MB·English

by  Jonathan M. Brown

Ecological and Evolutionary
Analyses of Life-History
Patterns
Edited by
MarilynA.
Houck
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V
© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Chapman & Hall in 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1994
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter in
vented, including photocopying and recording, or by an information storage or re
trieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mites : ecological & evolutionary analyses of life-history patterns /
editor, Marilyn A. Houck.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-4613-6012-4 ISBN 978-1-4615-2389-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-2389-5
I. Mites. 2. Mites-Evolution. 3. Mites-Adaptation. I. Houck,
Marilyn A.
QL458.M58 1993
595.4'2-dc20 93-18439
CIP
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available
DEDICATED
TO
Dr. Edward W. Baker
and
Dr. George W. Wharton
In Recognition of their Creativity and Life-long
Dedication to the Study of Mites
Contents
Foreword IX
Evert E. Lindquist
Preface Xlll
Marilyn A. Houck
Contributors xxi
CHAPTER I: Poecilochirus carabi: Behavioral and Life-History
Adaptations to Different Hosts and the Consequences of Geographical
Shifts in Host Communities.
Jonathan M. Brown and David Sloan Wilson
CHAPTER 2: Life-History Patterns of Hummingbird Flower Mites in
Relation to Host Phenology and Morphology. 23
Robert K. Colwell and Shahid Naeem
CHAPTER 3: Mites as Potential Horizontal Transfer Vectors of
Eukaryotic Mobile Genes: Proctolaelaps regalis as a Model. 45
Marilyn A. Houck
CHAPTER 4: Evolution of Life-History Patterns in the Phytoseiidae. 70
Maurice W. Sabelis and Arne Janssen
CHAPTER 5: Evolutionary Aspects of Oribatid Mite Life Histories
and Consequences for the Origin of the Astigmata. 99
Roy A. Norton
CHAPTER 6: Life-History Modifications in Astigmatid Mites. 136
Barry M. OConnor
vii
viii / Contents
CHAPTER 7: Life-History Patterns of Astigmatid Inhabitants of
Water-Filled Treeholes. 160
Norman J. Fashing
CHAPTER 8: The Evolution of Parasitism and the Distribution of
Some Dennanyssoid Mites (Meso stigmata) on Vertebrate Hosts. 186
Frank 1. Radovsky
CHAPTER 9: Evolution and Life-History Patterns of Mites Associated
with Bees. 218
George C. Eickwort
CHAPTER 10: Adaptation and Transition into Parasitism from
Commensalism: A Phoretic Model. 252
Marilyn A. Houck
CHAPTER 11: Cytogenetics of Holokinetic Chromosomes
and Inverted Meiosis Keys to the Evolutionary Success of Mites,
with Generalizations on Eukaryotes. 282
Dana L. Wrensch, John B. Kethley and Roy A. Norton
Index 345
Foreword
During the past two decades, we have come to realize that the Acari (mites
and ticks) rival the insects in their global diversity, abundance, and ubiquity. But
what we have yet to realize fully is the potential that this group of metazoans,
which are so individually minute, has in providing fresh insights about general
biological phenomena and in serving as experimental animals for formulating
and testing biological concepts.
The very attribute-small size-that previously impeded research on mites
has, with recent technological advances, come to be recognized as advantageous
in studying and using them experimentally. The advent of molecular techniques
(such as polymerase chain reaction) has overcome the limitation of tiny amounts
of substance available for analysis of individual mites. Their smallness also
correlates with: short generation time, ease in experimental replication, rapid
results, and minimal demands on space. As put so eloquently by Asher Treat in
his 1975 book, Mites of Moths and Butterflies, modern technology now permits
us to share with mites "the strange and beautiful world where a meter amounts
to a mile and yesterday was years ago."
Ecological and evolutionary concepts have been based predominantly on stud
ies of vertebrates, vascular plants, a few groups of insects (e.g. Drosophila), and
selected unicellular organisms. This has led to a somewhat limited and distorted
set of generalities on how multicellular organisms adapt and evolve. The Acari
are one of a few relatively untapped assemblages (major groups of fungi and
crustacea also come to mind) that have almost endless potential as study subjects,
to contribute to the overall picture of the complexity and diversity of life now on
earth.
This assemblage is remarkable in being very ancient (with extant families
represented in the geological record at least as early as the middle Devonian), as
well as very disparate. The early presence of acarines enabled them to interact
and co-evolve dynamically with subsequent major ecological and evolutionary
ix
x ! Foreword
radiations of vascular plants, insects, and terrestrial vertebrates, in ways that still
continue. Attributes of mites such as the intricacies of their life cycles, the genetic
and ecological mechanisms that regulate their abundance and adaptability, and
the diversity of their physiological and behavioral adaptations, all provide unique
opportunities for exploring fundamental biological processes.
The ancestral Acari was a conservative assemblage of omnivores (predators
fungivores) that stemmed from a predatory class of arthropods, the Arachnida.
Through time, however, mite diversification led to habitat and trophic expansion
in all manner of niches on land and in fresh and ocean waters, and the assemblage
now includes: microorganism filter feeders; fungal and algal grazers; parasites of
plants, vertebrates and invertebrates; and parasitoids, commensals and mutualists
of invertebrates. What are the attributes that have enabled the Acari, unlike other
arachnids, to achieve such unparalleled biological diversity beyond predation?
The answers lie among the attributes and patterns that have evolved in their life
histories and reproduction.
Based on life history studies of disparate groups of mites living in a variety of
habitats, the chapters in this book offer new data synthesized with previous
knowledge, which in some cases lead to startling views with broad evolutionary
impact. In its breadth and major significance to biological themes, one chapter
is salient in challenging a widely held cytogenetic paradigm that does not account
for the long-term evolutionary success of major lineages of thelytokous and
haplodiploid mites. Among sarcoptiform mites, there is strong evidence for a
large, long existent, and diverse group of thelytokous mites. Stranger still, is the
evidence for an evolutionary reversal to sexuality in a major lineage derived from
this group. Among trombidiform mites, there is much evidence for repeated
independent success in highly inbred clades of arrhenotokous mites. This chap
ter's phylogenetic perspective on the cytogenetic mechanisms which underlie
such diversity of life history patterns is elegant in its apparent simplicity not only
for mites but for the general lineage of eukaryotic organisms. The prospects
highlighted for further research in this area are exciting indeed.
Among other chapters, some consider life history and concomitant reproductive
patterns in diverse and speciose lineages of Acari, including the Oribatida and
the Astigmata in the suborder Sarcoptiformes, and the Dermanyssoidea and
Phytoseiidae in the suborder Parasitiformes. Another is of similar breadth, but
deals with symbiotic assemblages of mites co-adapted with a species group of
invertebrate hosts, bees in this case. Still other chapters deal in depth with specific
examples of hosts, such as fruit flies and carrion beetles, or with particular
examples of habitats such as hummingbird-pollinated flowers and water-filled
treeholes. The latter are tremendously fascinating because they shed light on
phenomena of general biological interest, such as horizontal-transfer vectors of
transposable genes between species, and the all-encompassing effects of host
plant morphology and phenology on virtually every aspect of the lives of f1ower
inhabiting mites.
Foreword / xi
If readers bear in mind that the included chapters are but tidbits of an almost
endless buffet of similarly fascinating associations of mites with other organ
isms-be they bracket fungi, insectivorous plants, hawk moth-pollinated flowers,
subcortical nematodes, intertidal mollusks and crustaceans, sawyer beetles, hon
eybees, midges, odoriferous glands of coreid bugs, or the bodies and nests of
birds and mammals-they will realize that similarly intriguing and biologically
significant studies are theirs for the choosing. Ecological and evolutionary analy
ses of life history patterns, among the many families of protelean parasitic water
mites co-adapted with their aquatic invertebrate hosts, await investigators with a
bent for freshwater ecosystems. And what on earth do we know of such patterns
among the diversity of halacarid mites that have, unlike insects, successfully
invaded the sea, including its very depths? Or of the peculiar, vennifonn nemata
lycid mites that somehow do well in soil depths to 10 meters?
The answers to these and similar questions are basic to an eventual understand
ing of the biodiversity that exists in any of the earth's ecosystems. The Acari
offer unique opportunities for investigating other biological phenomena relevant
to life history patterns, such as: heterochrony and paedogenesis, demographic
polymorphism, adaptations to terrestrial and aquatic ways of life, exploitation
of patchy environments, vector and hypervector relationships, specialist versus
generalist predators, and resource tracking versus host tracking in co adaptations
with fungi, plants, nematodes, insects, and vertebrate animals. Once we have a
perspective on the life history patterns of a greater diversity of organisms (includ
ing mites), based on ecological and evolutionary analyses superimposed on a
phylogenetic background, we will then be in a better position to predict the ways
of living and interacting of organisms representing a total array of biodiversity.
There is, moreover, an applied ecological side to these studies. Findings such
as the horizontal transfer of genes between species, the effect of prey densities
on the evolution of sex mechanisms in predatory mites, and the cytogenetic
mechanisms underlying the haplodiploid sex-detennining systems characteristic
of the most highly adapted groups of phytophagous and predatory mites, have
significant implication to the field of integrated control of animal and plant pests.
Further, studies of the interaction and co adaptation of mites and ticks with
closely associated microorganisms is critical to understanding how they, and other
invertebrates, transmit diseases to plants and animals, and how mites in tum may
be controlled by microbial pathogens.
As indicated by the diverse backgrounds of the authors of this book, these
subjects appeal to the more general students of evolutionary biology as well as
to the more specialized (and increasingly few) students of acarology. As well,
they appeal to both collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches and individual
investigations. And that is precisely the intent of this book: (1) to provide a
stimulating source of infonnation and ideas gleaned from the ways of life of
mites; (2) to have these ideas pursued further by general ecologists, geneticists,
parasitologists, and evolutionary biologists as well as by specialists; and (3) to
xii I Foreword
link generalists to the increasingly extensive and exciting acarologicalliterature
relevant to their areas of interest.
EVERT E. LINDQUIST
Ottawa, Canada
April, 1993