British biodiversity
Steganacarus sp., a box mite © Harry Taylor, Natural History Museum
An illustrated website is currently being developed to help users identify members of the British Acari and locate information about them.
Identifying British mites and ticks is difficult as taxonomic literature is scattered amongst scientific journals, while little of the fauna is covered by identification keys.
As many taxa also occur in other geographical regions, the website will enable at least the preliminary identification of specimens from elsewhere in the world.
The website will include:
- descriptions of collection and study methods for terrestrial Acari
- accounts of morphology
- an identification key to life stages
- keys to major higher taxa, genera of ticks, major divisions of the Oribatida and Mesostigmata, and exemplar superfamilies and families of Astigmata and Prostigmata