The water mite Thyas barbigera Viets (Hydrachnellae: Thyasidae) parasitizing mosquitoes

<p>The larvae of several species of water mites are ectoparasites on adult mosquitoes, the majority of the mites&nbsp;recorded belonging to the genera Thyas (Thyasidae) and Arrenurus (Arrenuridae). Mullen (1975) presented 238&nbsp;world-wide records of acarine parasites of mosquitoes but more than half of the observations concerned unidentified or doubtfully identified mites. In Europe parasitism of mosquitoes by water mites is mainly recorded from England and Germany (Mullen, 1975). From Denmark only Thyasides dentata (Thor) (on Aedes flavescens<br />
(M&uuml;ller) and Arrenurus globator (M&uuml;ller) (on Anopheles maculipennis Meigen) have been recorded (Lundblad,&nbsp;1927). However, Danish woodland mosquitoes are frequently parasitized by water mites. In this paper aspects of&nbsp;the parasitic association are analysed.</p>