Acarology is on the move! The growing interest from evolutionary and molecular biologists and from population and community ecologists in mites and ticks has a strong impetus on the field of acarology. This book contains many chapters that illustrate the recent progress in the field.

More than 40,000 species of mites have been described, and up to 1 million may exist on earth. These tiny arachnids play many ecological roles including acting as vectors of disease, vital players in soil formation, and important agents of biological control. But despite the grand diversity of mites, even trained biologists are often unaware of their significance. Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour (2nd edition) aims to fill the gaps in our understanding of these intriguing creatures. It surveys life cycles, feeding behaviour, reproductive biology and host-associations of mites without requiring prior knowledge of their morphology or taxonomy. Topics covered include evolution of mites and other arachnids, mites in soil and water, mites on plants and animals, sperm transfer and reproduction, mites and human disease, and mites as models for ecological and evolutionary theories.

The words pronounced by Serge Kreiter during the meeting come to mind. They could record exactly the situation of Acarology in Europe and in the World: "I think that in many European countries there are very few full time acarologists. It is very rare to have new positions available . . . . And public money, from the European Community but also from national countries, is very hard to get when you want to work on mites . . . . Could two acarological associations in Europe (Eur. A. Ac. and S. I. A. L. F) work together or, better, get married?" So, the fourth symposium of the European Acarologists has not only been the occasion to have an idea on which direction the research is addressed today, but also it pointed out the difficulties of our "scientific hranch". On the basis of the presentations and invited papers we had evidences of a "new" Acarology based on modern techniques and methods of investigations but also the importance, often sheltered even if of relevant value, of the "old" Acarology made on the alpha taxonomy and basic studies. So, a "new" Acarology needs the "old" one. In this context, the hope to put together the European acarologists has been coming up. This fact, of political meaning, can surely improve the acarological movement and the discussion on this point showed clearly the importance of several other activities and efforts in this direction. We hope that the meeting in Siena will represent a significative stone for the progress of Acarology.

Many mites possess extremely intricate life styles in close association with plant and animal hosts. Their polymorphism has made classification a challenge, and their ability to reproduce both sexually and asexually has made efforts to control their populations difficult. This, however, has given rise to theories to explain the origin and function of sexual reproduction in general. In numbers of species and geographic distribution, mites may even surpass the insects. In soils, they are a major component in the system for cycling nutrients. Unlike insects, they have invaded the marine environment. These and a number of other topics are explored in Mites. Because of their extremely small size, mites have been ignored during the development of major evolutionary and ecological theories. Yet mites routinely violate fundamental concepts such as heterochrony, sexual selection, the evolution of sex ratio, and ontogeny. Recent research methodologies have made it practical for the first time to perform experimental work with mites, and since they offer short generation times and rapid research results, they are excellent model systems. Mites announces these results and should appeal to professionals in entomology, acarology, ecology, population genetics, and evolutionary biology.

Although the ancestral home of chelicerates was the sea, the vast majority of modern species live on land. Most students of spiders and mites also restrict themselves to terrestrial habitats. However, a surprising number of mites (Arachnida: Acari) have returned to a watery existence. Approximately 7000 species from the Mesostigmata, Astigmata, Oribatida, and especially the Prostigmata, now live in marine and freshwater habitats. In Aquatic Mites, a dozen chapters explore the distribution, ecology, behavior, genetics, and evolution of the most diverse of these astonishing arachnids. The results of these studies raise as many interesting questions as they answer, and should provoke more investigations of the biology of freshwater and marine Acari.

Acarology is on the move! The growing interest from evolutionary and molecular biologists and from population and community ecologists in mites and ticks has a strong impetus on the field of acarology. This book contains many chapters that illustrate the recent progress in the field.

"This book provides a detailed introduction to the Acari, concentrating on their functional morphology, but also covering their classification and economic importance."--Cover.

By joining phylogenetics and evolutionary ecology, this book explores the patterns of parasite diversity while revealing diversification processes.

'Social' insects and arachnids exhibit complex forms of behavior that involve cooperation in building a nest, defending against attackers or rearing offspring. This book is a comprehensive, up-to-date guide to sociality and its evolution in a wide range of taxa.

This text presents an up-to-date account of the soft-scale insects, "Coccidae", and covers almost the entire spectrum of the knowledge of this insect family. It is divided into three sections, covering: soft scale insects; their natural enemies; and damage and control.