Systematic studies on Oppiidae and Damaeolidae (Acari: Oribatida) species of Pamukova, Sakarya

Keywords: Acari, Oribatida, Oppiidae, Systematics, Sakarya, Turkey. Mites are one of the organisms that sustain life in the organic matter and raw humus layers in the terrestrial ecosystem and provide partial decomposition in this organic matter. Their most intense living environments are soils. Oribatid mites are one of the richest groups of mites with more than 10 000 species identified to date. They live in habitats such as forest, desert, tundra, fresh water and sea, and they play an important role in the decomposition of plant waste, in the nutrient cycle, in soil formation and in the distribution of fungal spores. In this study, in order to determine Turkish oribatid mite fauna belonging to the family Oppiidae and Damaeolidae soil samples were collected examined from Pamukova district. As a result of the study four species belonging to the family of Oppiidae; Ramusella (Insculptoppia) paolii (Ivan and Vasiliu, 1999), Microppia minus (Paoli, 1908), Oppiella (O.) nova (Oudemans, 1902), Corynoppia kosarovi (Jeleva, 1962) and three species belonging to the Damaeolidae family; Damaeolus ornatissimus (Csiszár, 1962), Damaeolus asperatus (Berlese, 1904) and Fosseremus laciniatus (Berlese, 1905) were determined. The descriptions of detected species were revised, and their disributions in the world and Turkey were given. While the species Ramusella (Insculptoppia) paolii recorded fort he first time from Turkey, the species Microppia minus, Fosseremus laciniatus and Damaeolus asperatus were firstly recorded from Marmara region.