Water mites (Acariformes: Hydrachnidia, Halacaroidea) of the Malaya Sosva Nature Reserve (Western Siberia)

The paper presents data on the fauna of water mites (Acariformes, Hydrachnidia, Halacaroidea) of the Malaya Sosva State Nature Reserve (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug), located in the middle taiga zone of Western Siberia. The study covered the species composition, biotopic distribution and ecological features of water mites in different lentic ecosystems of the Nature Reserve. The research is based on 36 studied water bodies, which represented the main types of stagnant waters common on the Nature Reserve territory: lakes, floodplain ponds, temporary ponds and sphagnum bogs. The study revealed 51 species of Hydrachnidia and two species of Halacaroidea in different lentic water bodies. Most of the mites belonged to species typical of different types of stagnant and low flowing waters rich in submerged vegetation. Lakes of different types and permanent floodplain ponds were the richest in number of species and the number of mites. In these water bodies, three species of water mites prevailed, namely, Limnesia koenikei Piersig, 1894, Piona pusilla Neumann, 1875, and Piona carnea Koch, 1836. The number and species richness of mites were low in temporary ponds, but their fauna was based on specific spring species characteristic of astatic ponds. The fauna of the sphagnum bogs was the poorest, in which one species of Halacaroidea was the eudominant – Porolohmannella violacea Kramer, 1879. Unionicola parvipora is recorded for the fauna of Russia for the first time.