Oribatida


Oribatida, also known as moss mites or beetle mites, are an order of mites, in the "chewing Acariformes" clade Sarcoptiformes. They range in size from.
Oribatid mites generally have low metabolic rates, slow development and low fecundity. Species are iteroparous with adults living a relatively long time; for example, estimates of development time from egg to adult vary from several months to two years in temperate forest soils. Oribatid mites have six active instars: prelarva, larva, three nymphal instars and the adult. All these stages after the prelarva feed on a wide variety of material including living and dead plant and fungal material, lichens and carrion; some are predatory, but none is parasitic and feeding habits may differ between immatures and adults of the same species. Many species have a mineralized exoskeleton.
The Oribatida are of economic importance as hosts of various tapeworm species, and by increasing the breakdown of organic material in the soil, in a similar manner to earthworms.
E. O. Wilson has identified them as among the "groups of organisms that desperately need experts to work on them."

Systematics

The order Oribatida is divided into the following taxa: