Diversity of oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) in the Svalbard archipelago: a historical overview.

Studies on Oribatida from Svalbard have nearly a 150-year long history. This paper reviews species diversity of Oribatida in Svalbard from a historical aspect, summarizes how often species have been found and detects erroneous reports. A list of 93 oribatid species (including Astigmata) from the Svalbard archipelago is presented. The species represent 30 families, of which Brachychthoniidae (14 spp.) and Crotoniidae (12 spp.) are particularly species-rich. The most often occurring oribatid species is Diapterobates notatus (Thorell, 1871), mentioned in 50% of publications, followed by Ameronothrus lineatus (Thorell, 1871) and Hermannia reticulata Thorell, 1871, mentioned in 30% papers each. About one third of the species have been found in Svalbard only once, and half of them (i.e. 15 species) were reported only in the last century, including five very old records. Acarological studies in Svalbard are heavily biased since they have concentrated on the island of Spitsbergen with limited sampling of other islands / island groups: for example, Barentsøya, Bjørnøya, Danskøya, Edgeøya, Hopen, Lågøya, Kong Karls Land, Prins Karls Forland and Sofiaøya.