Morphometric analysis of oppiid mites (Acari, Oribatida) collected from Turkey

Abstract

In order to assess the relationship between the oppiid mite species (Acari, Oribatida) collected from Turkey, traditional and geometric morphometric methods were used. We have taken photographs of 128 specimens belonging to 11 species from six subfamilies of Oppiidae. These photographs were digitized and 17 interval measurements were taken for traditional morphometric analysis, and 20 landmarks were recognized on the ventral surface of each specimen for geometric morphometric analysis. The effectiveness to separate taxa was compared between the two morphometric analyses. In both dendrograms Oppia nitens formed a single cluster, Oxyoppia ilicaensis was singled out from the remaining nine species, which were clustered together. Two species, Lauroppia fallax and Rhinoppia obsoleta, clustered together implying a very close relationship.