Soil Oribatei. I. Feeding Specificity among Forest Soil Oribatei (Acarina)

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Abstract
Large numbers of living soil mites were obtained efficiently through extraction with Berlese funnels, collection in water, filtration through Buchner funnels, and separation from glass saucers following moderate drying. The foods used in the tests were (1) freshly fallen wood, conifer needles, and leaves, (2) these same substances in unknown but later stages of decay, (3) known species of wood decayed by known, uncontaminated species of fungi, and (4) individual species of uncontaminated fungi. Ten oribatid species were strictly fungivorous; eight fed primarily upon decaying wood and leaf tissues; and the remainder selected samples of each of the foregoing. The oribatids displayed considerable selectivity toward 20 species of fungi. Wood feeding could take place on Pinus ponderosa inoculated with Lenzites trabea only if at least a 6-week period of decay had elapsed; leaves of sugar maple, Acer saccharum, decayed with L. trabea, were amenable to oribatid feeding within a 2-week decay period. None of the organisms tested could feed on any fresh wood, needle, or leaf tissue, and none was observed feeding on dead oribatids, aphids, Collembola, or other animals.

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