WATERMITES - introduction

ANYONE WHO TOOK A PEEK IN A CLEAR DITCH HAS SEEN THEM: the little red spiders, that swim in the beautiful contrasting green of the waterplants. They seem to roam about aimlessly, like simple red little balls with sprawling legs. Yet there are smaller species, not coloured red, but inconspicuous green or pale yellow. And you have to be an attentive observer to distinguish these minuscule dots in a jar full of jumping waterfleas, where they move in more or less steady tracks, like planets between sparkling stars.

Worldwide there are over 5000 watermite species, with large differences in shape and habits. Some species are very similar to species on land. They are all active hunters. The development from egg to adult is complex and fascinating, often there are six distinct stages, some of these parasitic: the little red bulbs you might have seen on some insects.

TAXONOMY

Somewhere in the development of taxonomy the watermite families were swept together in a suborder called Hydrachnida, Hydrachnidia or Hydrachnellae. Those names are contractions of Hydro: water, arachnida:spider, so they mean simply: waterspiders, or little waterspiders (‑ellae). The suborder was also called Hydracarina in which sometimes the sea mites Halacaridae were included. But this suborder is too artificial according to the more contemporary sources I read (see below); because of their close resemblance to some species on land, they were placed with these species in a suborder called Anystina. You may compare the land mite in the picture at right with for example the very similar Hydryphantes.
I must add that the classification I described is absolutely not the only one around, and might be changed in the future. To get an idea you could follow the links on taxonomy below, to the pages I studied (around the year 2012) for this information.


Please note: the next article is about complicated matters and might bore you. It is only meant for those interested in taxonomy. Feel free to skip to the next page.

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A part of the scheme is shown below. All mites are placed in a giant group: the Acarina (Mites). This group is a part of the class Arachnidae (spiders and spiderlike animals). There are many mite families, lots of systems were constructed for their taxonomy, and there has been a lot of shuffling within these systems...

Infraclasse	Acarina (Acarida, Acari)  MITES A.O.
Superordo Superorder	Actinotrichidae (Acariformes)						Anactinotrichidae (Parasitiformes)
Ordo Order	Prostigmata (Actinedida, Trombidiformes)				Oribatida Moss mites	Astigmata (Sarcoptiformes)	Ixodida Ticks a.o.		other
Superfamilia Superfamily	Watermites (8 superfamilies)	other (9)	Halacaroidae a.o.		26 super- families	Sarcoptoidae and 10 other	Ticks a.o.

The Halacaridae of the superfamily Halacaroidae are sea mites (literally: saltmites). A few species of these live in sweet water. They are small mites (0,5 mm or less) with a peculiar appearance.

Some of the Oribatidae species may also be found in pond and stream, for example those of the Hydrozetes family. They are small, globular mites of a red brown colour, that crawl around slowly on waterplants, duckweed or moss.

The scheme shows how the watermites are close to the ticks. Even closer are other unwelcome guests like the cheese mite, the house dust mite and the scabies mite Sarcoptes scabiei, after which the superfamily Sarcoptidae was named (also described as the order Sarcoptiformes). These mites bear only a vague resemblance to spiders, most of them are microspic lumps with very short legs.
Trombidiform means: clot shaped. (remember: thrombosis). Like ticks, the Trombidiform land and watermites are parasititizing too (as the also used cohortname Parasitengona indicates). But, unlike the ticks, the adults don't drink blood, but the larvae attach themselves to a host to dissolve some of it's tissue and drink that. The Harvest mite is known for it's chiggers, that can sometimes be abundant in late summer, they jump on mammals and may cause Trombiculosis, especially on dogs.

Watermites are NOT dangerous for humans and other mammals: as a rule they only use other arthropods as a host. See page 3 for more.

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LINKS: (used for this article)
Watermite.org Site of European watermite researchers
http://www3.uark.edu/bisc/Default.html - Watermites of North America (University of Arkansas) project, with pictures.
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artdec99/mite.html - Watermite portraits by Wim van Egmond.
Taxonomy:
Main source for the table on this page: Fauna Europaea (2010) Fauna Europaea version 2.4. Web Service,
Was available on this old link online: http://www.faunaeur.org
Other systems:
http://www.sp2000.org - Species 2000.
http://www.nederlandsesoorten.nl - Het NEDERLANDS soortenregister (Dutch register of species).

About afflictions caused by LAND mites en ticks:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombiculidae - Trombidiosis on Wikipedia, about the chiggers (larvae) of the Harvest mite.
  http://www.cvbd.org/en/tick-borne-diseases/about-ticks/developmental-cycle/life-cycles-argasidae/ - Life-cycle Argasidae on the CVBD website (Canine Vector-Source Diseases). About a family of soft ticks with species that live on birds, bats and other warm blooded animals.

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REFERENCE LIST: (See also the Watermite reference list, there is some specific literature on other pages on this website).

Besseling, A. J. (1964). De Nederlandse watermijten (Hydrachnella Latreille 1802). Amsterdam. Monographieën van de Nederlandse Entomologische Vereeniging No. 1

Davids, C. (1979). De watermijten (Hydrachnellae) van Nederland. Levenswijze en voorkomen. Wetensch. Meded. K N N V, 132, 1-78.

Glime, Janice M. 2007. Bryophyte Ecology. (Volume 2. Chapter 9: Mites) Physiological Ecology. Ebook sponsored by the Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists. Retrieved 28 jan 2014 from http://www.bryoecol.mtu.edu/
    chapter 9-1 retrieved from http://www.bryoecol.mtu.edu/chapters_2011/9-1Arthropods_Mites.pdf en
    hoofdstuk 9-2 retrieved from http://www.bryoecol.mtu.edu/chapters_2011/9-2Arthropods_Mite_Habitats.pdf.

v.d. Hammen, L. (1972). Spinachtigen - Arachnidea IV Mijten - Acarida Algemene inleiding in de acarologie. Wetenschappelijke mededelingen K.N.N.V. nr. 91 march 1972

Neuman, C.J. (1879). Om Sveriges Hydrachnider. Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademie Handlingar Bandet 17 № 3. Retrieved from http://archive.org/details/omsverigeshydrac00neum

Piersig, R. (1897). Deutschlands Hydrachniden. Stuttgart. Zoologica 19 (22). 588. Retrieved from http://www.archive.org/details/zoologischerjahr1899staz

Smit, H. (2018). De Nederlandse watermijten (Acari: Hydrachnidia). Spektrum Akademischer Verlag 2010

Smit, H. & Van Der Hammen, H. (2000). Atlas van de Nederlandse watermijten (Acari: Hydrachnidia). Nederlandse Faunistische Mededelingen,13, 272pp. Retrieved 23 june 2010, from >http://www.repository.naturalis.nl/document/45797

Streble,H & Krauter, D (1973) Das Leben im Wassertropfen. Kosmos Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde. Franckh'se Verlagshandlung Stuttgart 1978. (p. 96-98, p. 314-319).

Tohru, Uchida. (1932). Some ecological observations on watermites. Contribution no 23 from the Zoological Institute, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido Imperial University.
Retrieved from http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/26941/1/1(4)_P143-165.pdf

Viets,K (1936). Wassermilben oder Hydracarina (Hydrachnellae und Halacaridae). Spinnentiere oder Arachnoidea VII. In: F. Dahl, Die Tierwelt Deutschlands 31 & 32

Wesenberg Lund, C. (1939). Dass leben der Süsswassertiere. Wien, Springer Verlag. (p. 550-595)