Morphological Ontogeny, Ecology, and Biogeography of Fuscozetes fuscipes (Acari, Oribatida, Ceratozetidae)

Abstract

The systematic status of Fuscozetes Sellnick, 1928, is not clear in the literature. Therefore, the morphological ontogeny of F. fuscipes (C.L. Koch, 1844), the type species of this genus, was investigated and compared with its congeners in this study, and a new diagnosis of Fuscozetes is given. The juveniles of F. fuscipes are light brown, with a brown prodorsum, sclerites, epimeres, and legs. In all juveniles, a humeral organ and a humeral macrosclerite are present. The gastronotum of the larva has 12 pairs of setae (h3 is present), whereas the nymphs have 15 pairs. In the larva, the gastronotal shield is weakly developed, and most gastronotal setae are short except for a slightly longer h2. Most of the gastronotal setae are inserted on the microsclerites except for h3, and several other macrosclerites and many microsclerites are present on the hysterosoma. In the nymphs, the gastronotal shield is well developed, with 10 pairs of setae (d-, l-, and h-series, and p1), and setae p2 and p3 are located on a large posteroventral macrosclerite. In all the instars, femora I and II are oval in cross-section, without a large ventral carina. Mitochondrial COI sequence data revealed a deep split between the Nearctic and Palearctic populations of F. fuscipes, and a less, but significant, divergence within each continent. These strong geographical barriers were contrasted with multiple cases of shared haplotypes over long distances in the Palearctic, indicating high migration rates in modern times.