Share this article    

       

       

Macrocheles rodriguezi, a new species of mite from Kansas (Acarina: Macrochelidae) with notes on its life cycle and behavior

Oliver, J.H., Jr. and Krantz, G.W.


1963 - Volume: 5 Issue: 4 pages: 519-525


Keywords

Acari Nearctic region Kansas Machrochelidae Macrocheles rodriguezi Development Life history new species

Abstract

Macrocheles rodriguezi n. sp. is figured and described. This species was observed in the laboratory for a period of 53 days. During these observations the relative humidity was extremely high (probably 95 percent or more) and the temperature ranged from 23 to 28 °C but was usually approximately 25 °C. The life stages consisted of an egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, adult male and female. It was not uncommon for the mites to pass through all the immature stages in 5 days. The approximate duration of each stage was 8 to 24 hours as an egg, the same as a larva, 24 hours as a protonymph and 48 to 72 hours as a deutonymph. The adult female was able to oviposit at the age of 21 days, inclusive of the immature stages. The eggs were laid at intervals of 1 to 8 days. Parthenogenesis and bisexual reproduction occurred: The regular diet of Macrocheles rodriguezi in the laboratory consisted of living acarid mites. Cannibalism was observed between an adult female and her first instar nymph in the presence of numerous acarids. There appears to be no courtship display prior to mating. During mating the male and female may remain embraced for as long as 17 minutes, but usually mating is completed in approximately 6 minutes. Senescence is accompanied by a bloated appearance and the mite becomes lethargic.

Comments
Please read and follow the instructions to post any comment or correction.

Article editorial history
Date published:
1963-10-01

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
1963 Oliver, J.H., Jr. and Krantz, G.W.
Downloads
 Download article

Download the citation
RIS with abstract 
(Zotero, Endnote, Reference Manager, ProCite, RefWorks, Mendeley)
RIS without abstract 
BIB 
(Zotero, BibTeX)
TXT 
(PubMed, Txt)
Article metrics

Cited by: view citations with

Search via ReFindit