Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:10:45.179Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Have mites (Acarina: Arachnida) colonised Antarctica and the islands of the Southern Ocean via air currents?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2003

P.J.A. Pugh
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Anglia Polytechnic University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT ([email protected]) Publication Primadonnas, Fold Park Cottage, Broom Lane, Begelly, Kilgetty, Pembrokeshire SA68 0XG

Abstract

Mites (Acarina: Arachnida) have not colonised Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands by ballooning on air currents. All acarine records from Pacific and Southern Ocean aerial plankton represent dead coastal (hemi)-edaphic species or phoretics dislodged from their flying insect hosts. The few sub-Antarctic records of mites capable of ‘ballooning’ on air currents are all verified as being attributed to anthropogenic introductions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)