Department of Zoology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004, Haryana (India).
Seasonal composition of soil acarine fauna was studied from July 1991 to June 1992 in Dalbergia sissoo plantation, both in litter and top soil. Quantification of mites at two different sites designated as high moisture soil (site-I) and low moisture soil (site-II) revealed predominance of cryptostigmatic mites (58.8%) in site-I and mesostigmatic mites (40.9%) in site-II. In total, twenty-five different types of mites, belonging to twenty-two families were identified. Among these, thirteen genera belonged to suborder Cryptostigmata and eight to Mesostigmata only. Epilohmannia cylindrica (Epilohmanidae), Oppia sp. (Oppidae), Scheloribatid sp. (Scheloribatidae) and Galumna sp. of the family Galumnidae were the most abundant genera. Astigmatic mites represented by single genera Tyrophaguswere the lowest in number in both the soil types.
