MESOSTIGMATIC MITES (ACARI) ASSOCIATED WITH GROUND, BURYING, ROVING CARRION AND DUNG BEETLES (COLEOPTERA) IN SAPPORO AND TOMAKOMAI, HOKKAIDO, NORTHERN JAPAN

A total of 19 species belonging to 5 families of mesostigmatic mites w ere collected in Sapporo and Tomakomai, northern Japan, on four groups of beetles, i.e., ground beetles (Carabinae, Carabidae), burying beet les (Nicrophorini, Silphinae, Silphidae), roving carrion beetles (Silp hini, Silphinae, Silphidae) and dung beetles (Scarabaeidae and Geotrup idae), all of which mainly forage on the ground surface. No mite speci es was found on more than one group of beetles except for Poecilochiru s carabi, which was found almost exclusively on burying beetles and ra rely on ground beetles. Mites also seemed to be specific to particular beetle group(s) at the family level. Thus, the ''phoretic'' mite faun as were distinctly different between the beetle groups: ground beetles (seven species) were characterized by carrying only one mite species, Iphidosoma fimetarium, burying beetles (two species) by two mite spec ies (Alliphis necrophilus, P. carabi), roving carrion beetles (three s pecies) by one mite species, Rhodacaridae sp., and dung beetles (11 sp ecies) by 15 mite species that included 8 species of Macrocheles. Mite s associated with dung beetles included specialist species such as Hol ostaspella sp. 1 which was specific to subsocial Copris ochus, and gen eralist species like Macrocheles sp. aff. glaber that was found on nin e dung beetle species.