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Current status of taxonomic study on Korean Eriophyoid mites
The mites of the superfamily Eriophyoidea are of worldwide distribution, and invariably associated with plants. They are extremely small in size with average 200 ㎛ of adult body length ranging from 80 to 500 ㎛, and thus often invisible to the naked eyes without noticeable deformation and/or injury on the host plants. Their general appearance is rather worm-like, with an elongated and transversely annulated opisthosoma, and with only 2 pairs of legs having a empodial featherclaw instead of paired true claws. The extremely small size and secret habits of eriophyoid mites cause them to be ignored or overlooked, and make them little understood and appreciated, although they are obligatory plant feeding mites being distributed in most botanical biosphere of the world.
Nevertheless, some species are of considerable economic significance as the tomato russet mite (Aculops lycopersici), Citrus rust mite (Aculops pelekassi), pear leaf rust mite (Phyllocoptes pyrivagrans), Castanopsis witches’ broom mite (Aceria kadonoi), Retusa fringe tree malformation mite (Aceria sp.) calls for a greater awareness of them in Korea. Besides, the eriophyoid mites from ornamental trees get to known to public, since the trees are planted along a street.
Information on eriophyoid mites in Korea is often difficult to obtain. This was mainly due to the lack of taxonomic works done in Korea. Furthermore, some records on eriophyoid mites are not taxonomically based but just adopted neighboring countries’ records. Their original descriptions are frequently inadequate with focusing on the ecological aspects rather than taxonomic ones. So, some species including Aceria species from Lycium chinensis, in the light of recent knowledge of eriophyoid taxonomy, should be renamed and reclassified.
Until now, more than 38 species in 17 genera of the family Eriophyidae have been reported in Korea, which is still relatively small number compared with those in neighboring countries; China (197 spp., in 60 gen), Japan (47 spp., in 19 gen), and Taiwan (75 spp., in 41 gen). Furthermore, none of the other families (Phytoptidae and Diptilomiopidae) have known yet. There is little doubt that more species await discovery in Korea.
Considering the geographic distribution patterns, only 7 species among 38 species of Korean eriophyids are endemic. A total of 23 Korean eriophyid species are shared with Japan, 12 species with China, 5 species with Taiwan, 7 species with Russia, and 19 species with USA. It shows that the Korean eriophyid fauna seems to be similar to the Japanese fauna zoogeographically, and more cooperation between Japanese and Korean taxonomists is continuously needed in the eriophyoid field.
On the other hand, more endemic and taxonomically important species are expected to be found in the Korean peninsular, since the eriophyoid mites is highly host specific and Korean peninsular is one of the most interesting areas with intense speciation processes. The upland and mountainous landscape (constituting 80% of the peninsula) favours the existence of multiple isolated habitats. The Korean peninsula is characterised by a high level of endemism among the species of higher vascular plants. Out of 2,898 plant species 407 are endemics (14%), including 224 endemic species in the southern and 107 endemic species in the northern part of the peninsula.
