TY  - JOUR
JF  - Acarologia
T1  - Soil mites in Brazil: small in size, giants in diversity and importance
VL  - 66
IS  - Suppl
SP  - 117
EP  - 117
PY  - 2026
SN  - 0044-586X
SN  - 2107-7207
PB  - Les Amis d'Acarologia
AU  - Raphael de Campos, Castilho
AU  - Ávyla Régia, De Albuquerque Barros
AU  - Vinicius, Borges
AU  - Lina, González-Cano
AU  - Alice, Braga
AU  - Barbara, Fialho
AU  - Lucas Lorena, Godoy
AU  - Thais Juliane, do Prado
AU  - Gilberto José, De Moraes
UR  - https://doi.org/10.24349/twqa-acer
DO  - 10.24349/twqa-acer
DA  - 2026-07-20
ET  - 2026-07-20
KW  - Biodiversity
KW  - Taxonomy
KW  - Ecology
KW  - Ecosystem services
KW  - Biological control
AB  - Brazil has approximately 8,515,767 km² of land area, of which about 41% is dedicated to agricultural and livestock activities. The country comprises six biomes (Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Pampas, and Pantanal), each characterized by distinct environmental conditions. Brazil is also among the countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. However, the intensive use of agricultural areas, particularly when carried out without proper management, can negatively affect soils, especially their biological component. Mites are among the most abundant organisms in soil ecosystems, but they are little studied in Brazil. In order to better understand the diversity of soil mites, and the prospecting species of Mesostigmata predatory mites for potential use in the biological control of pests, surveys conducted by the Acarology Laboratory at ESALQ/USP between 2018 and 2025 recorded more than 250 species of predatory mites, of which at least 50 were identified as new species. Among the predatory mites found in soil, species belonging to the families Ascidae, Laelapidae, Macrochelidae, and Rhodacaridae have shown potential for control of several pests, incluiding plant-parasitic nematodes (Meloidogyne spp., Pratylenchus spp., and Heterodera glycines), barberpole worm (Haemonchus contortus), sugarcane weevil larvae (Sphenophorus levis – Curculionidae), thrips (Frankliniella spp. – Thripidae), silver thrips (Enneothrips enigmaticus – Thripidae), fungus gnat (Bradysia spp. – Diptera), as well as eggs and larvae of houseflies (Musca domestica – Muscidae) and stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans– Muscidae).
ER -