Richness and abundance of Prostigmata and Mesostigmata mites inhabiting litter from a gallery forest in the university park at the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado (UCLA), Lara State, Venezuela were studied. Mites were captured using a pitfall trap along an 1800 m- transect from November 2000 to December 2001. Higher richness and abundance were registered for Prostigmata with 18 genera in eight families. In Mesostigmata, 11 genera included in six families were found. Of the 2085 Prostigmatan mites collected, 69.6% belonged to the Eupodidae genera Eupodes and Linopodes. Of the 398 Mesostigmata collected, 40.7% belonged to the Laelapidae; four genera of this family were found, being Hypoaspis and Cosmolaelaps the most abundant, with 28.6 and 8.0% of the Mesostigmata collected, respectively. Further studies, including Cryptostigmata, are required to improve the knowledge about the acarofauna diversity of soil-litter strata of the study area.
Eupodes; Linopodes; Hypoaspis; Cosmolaelaps; richness; abundance
