مشخصات پژوهش

The Laelapidae is one of the large and important families of Mesostigmata with worldwide distribution. Many of them are ectoparasite of mammals, arthropods and birds. Some species are free-living predators in soil habitats. In order to the study of fauna of this family in Maragheh region, East Azerbaijan Province during 2016, samples of soils in orchards were collected,placed in plastic bags and labelled, then transferred to the laboratory. The mites were extracted by a Berlese/Tullgren funnel and preserved in 75% ethanol. They were cleared in Nesbitt's solution and mounted in Hoyer’s medium on microscope slides and dried in an oven at 45–50°C for three weeks. A total of 25 species of 10 genera were identified, of which one species is a new record for Iran that is marked by an asterisk. Among the collected genera, Gaeolaelaps, Cosmolaelaps, Pseudoparasitus and Laelaspis had the most abundance, respectively