Acarology Research Group

		Head of Research Andrey V. Tolstikov Professor, CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences) E-mail: atolus@yahoo.com

About the Research Group

The group is composed of leading taxonomists in the field of Acarology - the study of mites and ticks - a diverse group of arthropods that play a significant role in human well-being.

Primarily, the group’s research is focused on soil mites: their taxonomy, ecology, and evolution.

The research group is the main mite identification center in Russia.

Main Research Areas

study of the global taxonomic diversity of mites, description of new taxa;
symbiotic relationships between mites and other arthropods;
synecology of mites;
applied acarology (agriculture, forestry, veterinary science, medicine).

Research Team

Senior research associate
Alexander A. Khaustov, DSc. (Doctor of Biological Sciences)
E-mail: alkhaustov@mail.ru

Senior research associate
Sergey G. Ermilov, CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences)
E-mail: ermilovacari@yandex.ru

Senior research associate
Pavel B. Klimov, CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences)
E-mail: pklimov@umich.edu

НResearch associate, X-BIO Professor
Omid Jocharchi, PhD in Agricultural Acarology
E-mail: o.dzhokharchi@utmn.ru

Research associate
Almir Pepato, PhD
E-mail: a.pepato@utmn.ru

Junior research associate
Vladimir M. Salavatulin
E-mail: v.m.salavatulin@utmn.ru

Junior research associate
Igor V. Badanin, PhD student
E-mail: i.v.badanin@utmn.ru

Affiliated Research Group Members

Vitaliy Stolbov, CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences), Docent of the Biology Institute (Tyumen State University)
Filipp Chetverikov, DSc. (Doctor of Biology Sciences), Professor of St. Petersburg State University

Research Projects Supported by Scientific Grants

Russian Science Foundation (RSF) (2016-2018): Symbiontic mites of bark beetles living on dominant tree species of West Siberian coniferous forests. PI: A. A. Khaustov, DSc.

Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) (2018-2020): Morphological and molecular phylogenetic systematics of bulb-legged oribatid mites of the superfamily Damaeoidea (Acari, Oribatida). PI: S.G. Ermilov, CSc.

Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) (2018-2020): Hostal specificity of acariform mitges (Acariformes), associated with scarabaeid beetles (Scarabaeoidea), with the use of molecular CO1-barcoding. PI: P.B. Klimov, CSc.

RFBR. (2018-2020): Peculiarities of oribatid mites complex (Acariformes) in termite nests (Insecta: Isoptera) of Southern Africa. PI: A. A. Khaustov, DSc.

RSF (2019-2021): Study of land-freshwater-sea transitions using phylogenetics and molecular clocks, based on the example of acariform mites (Acariformes). PI: P. B. Klimov, CSc.

RSF (2020-2023): Biological pest control: principles of ecological and genetic screening of mites’ and insects’ bioresources. Interdisciplinary project in collaboration with the All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection (FSBSI VIZR). PI: A. A. Khaustov, DSc.

Selected Publications

Sidorchuk E.A., Khaustov A.A. A parasite without host: The first fossil pterygosomatid mite (Acari: Prostigmata: Pterygosomatidae) from French Lower Cretaceous amber // Cretaceous Research. 2018. Vol. 91. P. 131-139.

Krause A., Sandmann D., Bluhm S.L., Scheu S., Maraun M., Ermilov S., Widyastuti R., Haneda N.F. Shift in trophic niches of soil microarthropods with conversion of tropical rainforest into plantations as indicated by stable isotopes (15N, 13C) // PLoS ONE. 2019. Vol. 14 (10). P. e0224520.

Pepato A.R., Vidigal T.H.D.A., Klimov P.B. Evaluating the boundaries of marine biogeographic regions of the Southwestern Atlantic using halacarid mites (Halacaridae), meiobenthic organisms with a low dispersal potential // Ecology and evolution. 2019. Vol. 9(23). P. 13359-13374.

Pepato A.R., Vidigal T.H.D.A., Klimov P.B. Molecular phylogeny of marine mites (Acariformes: Halacaridae), the oldest radiation of extant secondarily marine animals // Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2018. Vol. 129. P. 182-188.

Klimov P., Molva V., Nesvorna M., Shcherbachenko E., Erban T., Hubert J., Pekar S. Dynamics of the microbial community during growth of the house dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae in culture // FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 2019. Vol. 95(11). P. fiz153.

Klimov P.B., Pepato A.R., Khaustov A.A., Sidorchuk E.A., Vorontsov D.D., Perkovsky E.E. Two new species of fossil Paratydeidae (Acari: Trombidiformes) from the late Eocene amber highlight ultraslow morphological evolution in a soil-inhabiting arthropod lineage // Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 2019. Vol. 18(7). P. 607-629.

Klimov P.B., Bochkov A.V., Skoracki M. Cox 1 barcoding versus multilocus species delimitation: validation of two mite species with contrasting effective population sizes // Parasites & Vectors. 2019. Vol.12(1) P. 8.

Matthews A.E., Raybuck D.W., Boves T.J., Klimov P.B., Proctor H.C., Dowling A.P.G., Diener L., Hager S.B., Larkin J.L., Fiss C.J., McNeil D.J. Cophylogenetic assessment of New World warblers (Parulidae) and their symbiotic feather mites (Proctophyllodidae) // Journal of Avian Biology. 2018. Vol. 49(3). P. e01580.

Hubert J., Nesvorna M., Sopko B., Erban T., Klimov P., Dowd S.E. Differential allergen expression in three Tyrophagus putrescentiae strains inhabited by distinct microbiome // Allergy. 2019. Vol. 74(12). P. 2502-2507.

Khaustov A.A., Klimov P.B., Trach V.A., Bobylev A.N., Salavatulin V.M., Khaustov V.A., Tolstikov A.V. Review of mites (Acari) associated with the European spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) in Asian Russia // Acarina. 2018. Vol. 26 (1). P. 3-79.

Klimov P.B., OConnor B.M., Chetverikov P.E., Bolton S.J., Pepato A.R., Mortazavi A.L., Tolstikov A.V., Bauchan G.R., Ochoa R. Comprehensive phylogeny of acariform mites (Acariformes) provides insights on the origin of the four-legged mites (Eriophyoidea), a long branch // Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 2018. Vol. 119. P. 105-117 (Q1).

Mondal M., Klimov P., Flynt A.S. Rewired RNAi-mediated genome surveillance in house dust mites // PLoS Genetics. 2018. Vol. 14, Issue 1, Article number e1007183 (Q1).

Minor M.A., Ermilov S.G., Tiunov A.V. Taxonomic resolution and functional traits in the analysis of tropical oribatid mite assemblages // Experimental and Applied Acarology. 2017. Vol. 73, Issue 3-4, P. 365-381 (Q1).

Klimov P.B., Mironov S.V., OConnor B.M. Detecting ancient codispersals and host shifts by double dating of host and parasite phylogenies: Application in proctophyllodid feather mites associated with passerine birds // Evolution. 2017. Vol. 71, Issue 10. P. 2381-2397.

Klimov P.B., Ermilov S.G. Phylogeny of the large-winged mites (Galumnoidea): Investigating comparative evolutionary dynamics of a complex and possibly polygenic trait using nearly complete taxonomic sampling // Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 2017. Vol. 121, Issue 3. P. 600-612 (Q1).

Klimov P.B., Bochkov A.V., OConnor B.M. Phylogenetic position of the house dust mite subfamily Guatemalichinae (Acariformes: Pyroglyphidae) based on integrated molecular and morphological analyses and different measures of support // Cladistics. 2016. Vol. 32 (3). P. 261-275 (Q1).

Rahiminejad V., Hajiqanbar H., Khaustov, A.A., Talebi, A.A. A new genus and two new species of the family Pygmephoridae (Acari: Heterostigmata) associated with beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) // Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 2015. Vol. 108, Issue 5, P. 893-901 (Q1).

Norton R.A., Ermilov S.G. Catalogue and historical overview of juvenile instars of oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) // Zootaxa. 2014. Vol. 3833, Issue 1. P. 1-132 (Q2).

Examples of Research Topics for Graduate Students/Postdocs

Symbiotic relationship of mites with termites/ants/bees.
Taxonomic diversity of the Damaeidae mite world fauna.
Biogeography of marine Halacaridae mites.
Flat mites on wild plants of Western Siberia.
Biological plant protection using the indigenous Phytoseiidae mite fauna.

Russian Partners

Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), St. Petersburg
A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, RAS, Moscow
All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, St. Petersburg
Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch of RAS, Novosibirsk
Moscow State University, Moscow

International Partners

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, USA
University of Göttingen, Germany
University of Bremen, Germany
Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Institute of Soil Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic
University of Santa Cruz do Sul, Brazil
Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
University of the Philippines Los-Baños, Philippines
University of the Free-State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa