Mites

Abstract

Hummingbirds and the flowers that they pollinate provide an unambiguous example of mutualism. In many cases the associations present clear evidence of coevolution, in the strictest sense of the term (e.g. Colwell 1989). Certain species of mites (hummingbird flower mites) exploit this bird-plant mutualism, with known examples throughout most of the geographic range of the hummingbirds (Trochilidae), which spans the New World from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (Colwell 1985). This ecologically-defined group of gamasid mites (all within the Ascidae) encompasses all described species of the genus Rhinoseius, which inhabit a zone from northern California to central Chile, plus a diverse tropical lineage within the genus Proctolaelaps. These two ecologically similar lineages have spawned an impressive adaptive radiation of species (Colwell 1979).