Hin Env, Z00ly Vol. 4, 1990 pp. 81-86 ‘SOIL AGARINES OF FOREST AND CULTIVATED LANDS AND EFFECTS OF ABIOTIC FACTORS ON THEIR POPULATION DENSITY (Received May 7, 1990; Accepted July 10, 1990) L. K, Vats & Archana Narula Department of Zoology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 132 119, India, Acarines constitute one of the dominant groups ot Arthropoda. Thirty specics were collected, of which 22 are common to both the forest and the cultivated soils. ‘The population density was higher in forest soil, Schetoribates was most dominant ol all the species at both the sites, The density wasp wely co-related with suil tcamperawure, but nega- tively with soil moisture. The acarines constitute an impurtant yroup of soil arthropods. Generally, the work on Acarina is confined either to forest or cropland soil, but the comparative account is less reported. Here, an attempt has been made to compare tho acarine fauna of forest and cultivated lands and to relate the population density with tempe- rature and moisture content of the soil. In cultivated land wheat and paddy ary suwn every year. The torest is domi- nated by Delbergia sisson, Forast soil is sandy-loamy and tho cropland suil Is. loamy. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Acornor of Sem. diam, was used to take the samples upto 6 cm deep Into soll. Six samples from each of the sites were taken at an interval of fortnight for two years, from February; 1984 to January, 1986, The samples were kept separately and brought to the laboratory for oxtraction of acarines, Cach sample was transferred toavate & Narula 82] mesh. 95W electric bulb was used tg kept below the funnel, containing 79% rated solution of MgSO, Tullgren funnel and kept over the wire i out the arthropods which fell into the re % i th ne and 50 ml ; a8, : A mixture of 10 ml of easing from soil particles and debris which were thug in the jar to separate ines were sorted out and got identified. Population den. ative collected in the jar The aca sity was calculated as_under : 1000 x P= XG Where P = population density, X — number of in juals collected per sample and d= diameter of sampler. The moisture content and temperature of soil on each sampling day were recorded. OBSERVATIONS : The observations, described here, are based on 48 samples from each of the study sites and the results obtained are recorded in Table—1. In all 30 species of 28 families were collected, Forest Stand: Acarina constituted 35.5% the total Arthropoda, 28 species of mites were collecteds Of these, 11 belonged to Prostigmala alone and made upto 35% of Acarina. The population density of acarines varied from 170-52702 m-? with an average density of 5034 m-* Scheloribates SP: was most dominant, whereas Rhagidia sp. density, and Raphignathue gracialis showed lowest Cropland: Acarina were most domi cies of mites were collected. tates ened am 2g tae a space” Theses Sera i = m™ with an av - ilontbuses ©. and Diyvbia proeiasa were the do clan wheats OF MAD nr. Shi ‘ant species, wh, nats and Chelostigmacus were lowest in Population denstty, ereas the species of Cryptoe'[ 83 Soil Acarines rouprand sudordoucp, 1s SLL eve 6s'z eepiiedy VLVNSILSY Peynuepiun, 8h 261 960 ae peynuertun *ds snoomiysoyay) z - ero exp eewiSag vseapoud vigodige ele ee ee-08 = eepi yocue.z9 1, a201F supporsnndoy a z 290 £00 eepryreudiyd2y “ds mpuipyy — z _ £0°0 evpl|pi624y tds snyrwutondag z L 600 pio aeplyjerBordkig sds wpiqueyouyy a L 7 vo eepuplqwait poywy oy oysraayy ro 83 480 st orpneiKera sds smdoy "ds moon 8 uw sot ort oepreesuvig smonuqos xvung, 2 Lie os aert eepixeen mypandou sodyuduy 193 pee isa Ble eeplseoeyncS pay!uep! JON gel £98 60°01 veh eepyoydewbAd VAWWN91LSONd putldcig y8010g —~pur|coIN ——4Sa104 pajea}109 saizeds ‘euyaroy Jo (-w) filsuap e6ese.y (%) vornnguys09 Loxey urvy aq) 50 Aaysuop aBesoae pu wopngEszu09 yuo? 19q—1 TILSS EEE EEE “ds srydispuoy - bh = 0 ew e501 Paynuep! I0N, ze 88 elt 99°0 eepipodosy, “ds sdopenjig - er - #80 eepidejae7 PEURUORLION gy 09 £% 6" sepyisesey ‘ds omy ag 60 ve 9s" ovpiosy tds sdopar poopy ost 8so Le ais eepidejaejojeH Poy. g NUPIUL ‘CS suuonpoyy 90L 989 91's coer eep seoepouy z VLVNOLisOsaN ra} sds pidjormay = L = tho. eepyiddop.joyy 3 oping ‘poppy® vmod 8h oe 9670 6s) evpluuewydody pnp vyupstyyy 8s 610 $0", eepiseoeyyrydng “ds snymuong = 8 ee set eepynwiasg sds odd sz SLL vel Wwe eepiddo. “ds sappquopyrs 86¢ LBab eos LES eeplinequo. VLVNOILSOLAYD puedes ;sa104 pueldoig jse104 payeljoo seadg (;-L1) Aysuep e6240ny (%)__woung suo uoxe, S pemanues —] erqeSoll, Acarines es DISCUSSION ; Thirty species of mites wore collectod from both the soils. Of these, six spe- Cies viz, Microtrombrdium sp., Rhagudia eps, Bremulas spr, Ceratoppia spay Ololactaps sp. and Gamasiphus sp. were reported from forest soil only, whoreas, two species, Brobia sp. and Ghelostigmacus sp., were recorded in cropland soil. The remaining 22 species were common to both the: sites. If the whole Arthropoda is considered, acarines wera most dominant in forést Soil, but were next to collemboles in cropland, Of the Acarina, Prostigmata were most dominant and Asligmala were least In population density in both the soil, The Populaiion density of mites was higher in forest than cropland, This may be due to tha fact that forest soil is covered with er which acts as moderator of microclimate, whereas, in cultivated ficlds these are directly exposed to sunlight and temperature. Moreover, the agricultural practices may further reduce the mite population in cultivated fields. Scheloribates sp. were dominant of all the epocice in both the cites, but the other species did not follow the similar pattern in population density. Generally, the mites constitute most dominant group of Arthropoda in both the soils, but these came next lo Collembola in forest stand *# and cropland. The effects of temperature and moisture content of soil were also obse ved. There was positive correlation of temperature with population density. The similar correlation has been reported by Reddy’. However, Mahajan’ observed negative correlation, whereas, Choudhuri and Pande* reported positive correlation in one site and negative In utler. . wisture is of vital importanco to coil fauna in general, In case of eee correlation of moisture with population density was recorded yy i earlier workers®. * "11, But negative correlation has also been feporod yi others In ou tis negative correlation was observed in both thes sites oxcept in second year In the forest where posilive correlation was .Vats & Narula 86 J REFERENCES : Edwards, CAs (1977). {ns Proceedings of the Association of Applied Biologists, 87 : 515, 1 wards, CAy Ane = 2 Reddy, M.V. (1904). dur. J. Bivmeteurol, 28 : 55. Schenker, R. (1984). Pedobiologia 27 : 133. 4 Ghilarov, M.S. (19/5). In. J. Vanek (ed.) Progress in Soil Zoology. Academia Publishing House, Prague. 5. Willard, JR, (1974). Soil Invertebrates VII: Tech. Report No. 56. Matader Project, Canada, 8. Tadros, M.S, (1961), Indian J. Agrie. Sci, 51 ¢ 243, Community structure and biocoenology of soil micro- arthropods in tropical arable and deciduous forest st Thesis, Banaras Hindu Univenity, Varanasi, 8 Choudhuri, D.K. and Pande, {0 Acarology in India, Proceedi UAS, Bangalore, 9% Singh, J, and Pillai, K. §, (1975), Rev. Heol. Biot, Soil, 12 + 579 10. Choudhuri, D.K., Hazra, A, K, and Roy, : S. (1978), tn Veerash (ed,) Soil Biology ang) Heologs in India, UAS Tech 1 Hasta, A. K. and Choudhut, K. (19 sD. K. (1981) Ins Plslegy and Ecology in India, YAS Toch, aan ins - Series No, 37, R, Darlong, V.T, and Alfred, JR.B, (19R: T.(1981) In: GP, ¢ hannabasavanna (ed.) Contnbuias Ings of the first All India Symposium in Acarology, : G.A, Edwards and G. K, Series No. 22, Bangalore. K. Veorooh (ed.) Progress in Si! Bangalore, 2). 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