Mites as modern models: acarology in the 21st century

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Proctor, H.C.
  • Walter, D.E.

• We present a literature survey and analysis of the profile of mites (Acari, exclusive of Ixodida) in recent literature and on the World Wide Web, and compare their prominence to that of spiders (Araneae). Despite having approximately the same number of described species, spiders outshine mites on the Web, although the study of mites (Acarology) is better represented than the study of spiders (Araneology). Broad searches of scientific literature imply that publications on mites exceed those on spiders by 2-3x; however, this dominance was reversed when a smaller number of journals with broad readerships and no taxonomic orientation (e.g., Nature, Science) were surveyed. This latter analysis revealed that the topical content of mite and spider papers in these general-science journals differs significantly. A troubling leveling-off of taxonomic publications on mites also was discovered. We conclude by suggesting some strategies that acarologists and editorial boards might follow in order to raise mites to their proper status as exemplary models for ecological and evolutionary research.

• Date created

  2010

• Subjects / Keywords

  • World Wide Web
  • Spiders
  • Mites
  • Keys
  • Evolution
  • Internet
  • Acarology
  • Ecology

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R35Z9G

• License

  Acarologia is under free license The open-access articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons-BY-NC-ND which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/fr/deed.en_GB You are free: to copy and distribute the work. Attribution: you must give the original author credit. Non-Commercial: you may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works: you may not alter or transform this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights.