Catalogue of oribatid mites (acari) of Southeast Asia

A catalouge of the oribatid fauna of Southeast Asia (SEA) as presented, covering a period of 113 years, from 1905 when the first nine species were reported by the Italian zoologist.Antonio Berlese, from the island of Java, to the end of 2018. For each species, information on the reference to the original description and subsequent recombinations with their genera are given, type locality and habitat from where it was first collected, other localities and habitats recorded later, and its geographic distribution within the outside SEA. These data were gathered from over 600 different publications containing original species descriptions, rediscriptions and new species records, as well as world catalouges, checklists and keys for identification of taxa including those originality described from SEA. Other references to original descriptions and type locality of species that were originally described outside SEA but later found to exist also in the region were also consulted. Europeans have led explorations in the region in the 1960s to early 1990s, and taxonomic accounts of collections deposited in European museums are mainly due to acarologists from Hungary, Poland, Japan and Russia, the last especially on the Vietnamese fauna. Except for the Philippine and Vietnam, contributions from nationals of these countries are minimal, although some acarologists from Thailand have recently taken oribatids as subjects of research. Southeast Asia lies within the tropics and comprises countries located above the equator up to approximately 20 sup 0 N, and parts of Indonesia below the equator up to 10 sup O S, and it longitudes between 90 sup O W to 150 sup O E. It includes 11 countries squeezed between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean-Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam on the Southeastern edge of the Asian continent were most of them share their northern boarder with China; and the Malay Archipelago composed of a group of islands politically belonging to Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, East Timor and the Philippines. All of these countries belong to the Oriental Region except for the Indonesian Moluccas Islands and Iran on the western half of New Guinea Island which are zoogeographically part of the Australian region. Among the various component countries, Vietnam has the highest number of recorded species at 623, followed by the Philippines (511), Indonesia including Kalimantan located in Borneo Island (406), Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo Island (255), Thailand (116), Brunei in Boromeo Island (66), Cambodia (32), Singapore (25), Myanmar (11), while not a single species is currently known from East Timor and Laos. Most of the species known from the Malaysia come from its two provinces (Sabah and Sarawak)which compromise East (Malaysian) in Boromeo Island with 194, or more than twice that on Peninsular or West Malaysia with 77 species. On the whole, Boromeo Island which is home for three countries, has 246 recorded species with Sabah and Sarawak, having 194, Brunei, 66 and Kalimantan only 20species. A greater portion of the recorded species, that is, 945 or 61.9% of the total (1,526) occur only in or are endemic to Southeast Asia as delimited here. Endemism to the individual countries ranges from 33.2 and Brunei (56.1%). The relatively better known and bigger countries have lower rates of endemism - 28.7% for Vietnam, Philippines 46.8%, Malaysia 42.3%, Thailand 37.1%, and Indonesia 33.0%. Oribitads are found in extremely diverse habitats not only in the soil-litter system but many are aboreal and a few are aquatic. In terrestrial ecosystem,, they exist in biomes from the coast of marine and freshwater bodies to the highest elevations where forest habitats become mossy and foggy. The original vegetation of tropical rain forests primary dipterocarp forests, although much diminished in modern times, still exist in many parts of Southeast Asia. There are also monsoon forests, dry tropical forests, natural re-growths of mixed secondary forests, man-made tree plantation forests, mangrove swamps and marshy peat forests along coasts of islands, freshwater swamp forests, agricultural areas from lowlands to uplands, and patches of savanna and grasslands inland. Within these broad biomes, numerous habitats or microhabitats are as limitless as the vegetation and environmental conditions therein. Foremost of these are plant debris fallen to the ground inside caves or in water, mosses on dry or wet ground, or actually submerged in freshwater or marine waters; and on orboreal parts of living trees and understory shrubs. Less frequently, they inhabit the nests of social insects like ants, termites, bees and wasps and vertebrates mainly birds, and their droppings, or on the bodies of these animals themselves. Orbatid species reported from the most diverse habitats are usually also the most widely distibuted geographically with a given country or across the world zoogeographic regions. Scheloribates praeniscus appears to have the most diveres habitats in SEA, including most of those mentioned earlier. Other, widespread species are Peragalumma margaritata, Lamellobates molecula, Peloribates kaszabi, Trachyoribates ovulum, Opiella nova, Zetorchestes saltator, Tectocepheus velatus, Trichyoribates ovuum, Opiella nova, Zetorchestes saltator, Tectocepheus velatus, Trichogalumma nipponica, Ermobelba bellicosa, Suctobelbella variosetosa, Lamellobates (Paralamellobates) misella, Mesoplophora plantotrema, and Eremelus avenfer.