Hämähäkkieläimet : Arachnida

A molecular-based identification resource for the arthropods of Finland

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Molecular Ecology Resources published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. To associate specimens identified by molecular characters to other biological knowledge, we need reference sequences annotated by Linnaean taxonomy. In this study, we (1) report the creation of a comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes for the arthropods of an entire country (Finland), (2) publish this library, and (3) deliver a new identification tool for insects and spiders, as based on this resource. The reference library contains mtDNA COI barcodes for 11,275 (43%) of 26,437 arthropod species known from Finland, including 10,811 (45%) of 23,956 insect species. To quantify the…

Wood ant nest mounds as biodiversity hotspots: Case studies with oribatid mites

The red wood ant (Formica) nest mounds form in forest landscape diversity hotspots by hosting large amount of invertebrate ant associates. The most numerous associate group, the soil-dwelling oribatid mites, have however remained rather unstudied due to their minute size and lack of taxonomic experts. Few studies conducted in Finland have recently lighted up the oribatid’s diversity in ant mounds. First, our study based on 10,600 specimens and 74 identified species, showed that the wood ant F. polyctena nest mounds were inhabited by an equally abundant and diverse oribatid fauna as the surrounding soil. Moreover, the results revealed that predominantly different species inhabited these two …