Search Results - Acarina

Most acarines are minute to small (e.g. 0.08–1.0&_160;mm), but the largest Acari (some ticks and red velvet mites) may reach lengths of 10–20&_160;mm. It is estimated that over 50,000 species have been described (as of 1999) and that a million or more species are currently living. The study of mites and ticks is called acarology (from Greek ?????, akari, a type of mite; and -????a, -logia)^[1], and the leading scientific journals for acarology include Acarologia, Experimental and Applied Acarology and International Journal of Acarology.

Mites are members of Arachnida and, as such, should have a segmented body with the segments organised into two tagmata a prosoma (cephalothorax) and an opisthosoma (abdomen). However, only the faintest traces of primary segmentation remain in mites, the prosoma and opisthosoma are insensibly fused, and a region of flexible cuticle (the cirumcapitular furrow) separates the chelicerae and pedipalps from the rest of the body. This anterior body region is called the capitulum or gnathosoma and according to some workers is also found in Ricinulei. The remainder of the body is called the idiosoma and is unique to mites.

Most adult mites have four pairs of legs, like other arachnids, but some have fewer. For example, gall mites like Phyllocoptes variabilis (superfamily Eriophyioidea) have a wormlike body with only two pairs of legs; some parasitic mites have only one or three pairs of legs in the adult stage. Larval and prelarval stages have a maximum of three pairs of legs; adult mites with only three pairs of legs may be called 'larviform'.