A guide to Oribatid Identification for the ABMI: - Royal Alberta Museum

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Almanac of Alberta Oribatida 2.3 13 January 2013IntroductionWhat follows is a compendium of the oribatid mites (Arthropoda: Arachnida: Acari:Acariformes: Sarcoptiformes: Oribatida) known from the Province of Alberta in December 2012(about 350 species distributed across 28 superfamilies). The Almanac is meant to be a ‘livingdocument’ that will be updated on a regular basis, rather than a static publication. My primarygoal is to provide a record of Alberta’s oribatid mite fauna that is associated with distributionaland ecological information. A secondary goal is to provide identification tools (images, keys,diagnoses) to facilitate the identification of these mites by students and researchers. In this firstdraft, the keys are of the traditional dichotomous type, but eventually I intend to produce acomputer interactive key to the fauna. Anyone who wishes to contribute to this project, especiallyto correct errors, add missing information, or suggest ways to make this document more userfriendly, is encouraged to contact the author at the email above.We are especially grateful for the baseline data on the Oribatida of Alberta compiled byValerie Behan-Pelletier and Barbara Eamer (Acarology Unit, Research Branch, Agriculture andAgri-Food Canada, Ottawa) at the Diversity of Oribatida in Canada (DOC) website. The DOC(2004) was based on published records of Canadian Oribatida as of 2004 and listed about 132species of oribatid mites for Alberta. Some of these records are indefinite (i.e. an unidentifiedspecies in a known genus) and a few are based on misidentifications in the literature, but untilnow the DOC has been the definitive source of information on Alberta’s oribatid mite fauna. Theauthors of this website deserve the thanks of everyone in Canada who is interested in oribatidmites and the biodiversity of Canadian soils and the planned update is eagerly awaited.The new information on the Oribatida of Alberta in this Almanac comes from three primarysources. The first is the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) surveys from 2007-2011 which recovered about 23,000 target oribatid mites (i.e. adults >0.3 mm in length) fromhundreds of sites from around Alberta (see Map 1). New collections outside of the primaryABMI survey comprise the second source of information. This includes my benchmark site inLamont County, the Moose Pasture Research Site 8 km W Chipman, AB (53.656667, -112.759444). This is an area of aspen forest, meadows, and ponds in the kettle & knob countryjust to the east of Elk Island National Park that I have sampled from May 2007 on. In addition, astime permits, I have analyzed specimens collected at the University of Alberta’s MeanookBiological Research Station (54.37N, 113.21W), the Finnamore Farm near Onoway, theEdmonton River Valley, Dinosaur Provincial Park, and other sites in Alberta. Finally, I haveincorporated reports from recently published papers and unpublished collections by Dr ValerieBehan-Pelletier (VBP) and Professor Roy A. Norton (RAN) of the State University of NewYork at Syracuse where relevant. The third source of new information is my ongoing revision ofAlberta’s oribatid mite fauna. I am attempting to check previous identifications, clarify indefinitedeterminations whenever possible, and produce a stable taxonomic framework. This is a dauntingtask, and I would be delighted to share it with any specialist who is interested. I would like totake this opportunity to thank those who have already provided advice, suggestions, andcorrections including VBP, RAN, Bruce Halliday, Zoë Lindo, Jeffery Norton, Gerd Weigmann,and Heinrich Schatz. Any misidentifications or misinformation in this Almanac are, of course,my responsibility.8
Almanac of Alberta Oribatida 2.3 13 January 2013AlbertaThe Province of Alberta, Canada, lies between 49-60 N latitude and stretches approximately1,223 km from the Northwest Territories south to the state of Montana in the USA and 660 kmfrom the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in the east (110th meridian) to British Columbia inthe west (~120th meridian). In area (~662,587 sq. km), Alberta is larger than any of the countriescurrently in the European Union, about twice the size of Finland and 20% larger than France.The ice sheets of the last stage (Wisconsin) of the most recent Ice Age reached theirmaximum extent around 18-21,000 years ago. Except for parts of the Cypress and PorcupineHills in the south and a few mountain peaks in the Rockies that may have survived as nunataks, awestern ice sheet spreading from the Rocky Mountains (the Cordilleran) and a north-eastern icesheet centered on the current Hudson’s Bay (the Laurentide) covered Alberta in 1000-2000 m ofice until some time after 18,000 years ago (Beaudoin et al. 1996; Beaudoin & Oetelaar 2003).These ice sheets would have destroyed any pre-existing soil fauna including the oribatid mites.As the climate warmed, a Western Corridor opened between the two ice sheets in a northwestdirection along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The newly exposed land appears tohave been colonized by low, sparse vegetation (grasses, forbs, and shrubs) from southern refugia.Extensive inundation by proglacial lakes along the retreating margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheetand likely periodic catastrophic flooding also affected recolonization (Beaudoin & Oetelaar2003). By 12,000 years ago the Western Corridor was open to colonization by Berengianelements. The ice sheet continued to retreat to the north and northeast and by 9,000 years agoexcept for montane ice fields and the extreme northeast corner, Alberta was free of permanentice.Today the climate of Alberta is continental in the south to subarctic in the north. Averagetemperatures in January range from -8°C in the south to -24°C in the north, and in July from20°C in the south to 16°C in the north (Government of Alberta 2012). Various vegetation-basedclassifications exist, but six primary regions are usually recognized. (1) Boreal Forest (taiga)covers much of the northern two-thirds of the province and is often associated with muskeg, otherpeatlands and wetlands, and open fresh water ranging from small ponds to extensive lakes. (2)Grasslands (prairie and badlands) form the south-eastern corner and are associated with muchdrier general conditions and more circumscribed wetlands. (3) Aspen Parkland provides atransition between prairie and forest with mixtures of grassland, scrub, open forest, and wetlands.(4) The Rocky Mountains form the southwest border of Alberta with a maximum elevation of3,747 m and a complex of subalpine and alpine habitats. (5) The Foothills Natural Region formsa relatively warm and wet transition between the mountains and the Boreal Forest. (6) Finally, acomplex of sand plains and dunes, rock barrens, and peatlands covers the cold, dry CanadianShield Natural Region in the extreme northeast of the Province.Oribatid Mites: Acari, Acariformes, Sarcoptiformes, OribatidaIn the strict sense (excluding Astigmata), oribatid mites (also known as Cryptostigmata, Oribatei,moss mites, armoured mites, or beetle mites) comprise about 11,000 described species distributedacross about 1,300 genera and approximately 175 families depending on synonymies (more thanone name for given taxon) and the interpretations of various taxonomists (e.g. Subías 2004,Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). In this work I am following the taxonomy in the Catalogue ofthe Oribatida (Acari) of Continental United States and Canada (Marshall et al. 1987) and theDiversity of Oribatida in Canada website (Eamer & Behan-Pelletier 2004) as modified in the 3 rd9
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A guide to Oribatid Identification for the ABMI: - Royal Alberta Museum

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