Arachnida

Research

Taxonomy, Systematics and Nomenclature of Acari

Selected species or genera from different regions of the world are processed taxonomically and systematically, including the description of new species and the preparation of identification keys. This is the bases for ecological, agricultural- and forest-economical or nature protection-technical investigations. New descriptions of species and literature for the groups Mesostigmata, Oribatida and Actinedida saved in an internal database program and in the bibliographic series ACARI published annually.

 

Ecology and Faunistics of Acari

The spreading and the requirements for life of mites are well-known for the majority of the kinds so far few. It is examined, which species of mite of moorlands, forests, meadows, fields and recultivation surfaces to settle, as itself the kind spectrum in the process of the Suczession on waste dumps changed and as far the kinds are common in Central Europe or the Palaearktis.

 

Ticks of central European mammals

From rare vertebrates especially bat, otter or raccoon dog the infestation intensity with ticks is so far hardly examined. In the vertebrate animal preparation of the museum are gathered up ticks and other ectoparasites from the animals which are worked out. The investigation of ticks makes conclusions about the intensity of parasitizing of the respective hosts.

 

Present research plans 

  • taxonomic investigation of a probably new species of  the genus Lasioseius
  • investigations to the fauna of predatory mites in the Germany
  • parasitizing of vertebrates (bat, raccoon dog) with ticks
  • bibliographic composition of literature and species of Gamasina mites

Projects and cross-sectional Projects  

VIRMISCO – The Virtual Microscope Slide Collection  (DFG XY 12/6-1)

Development of standards for the photographic documentation of permanent microscope slide mounts in precarious mounting media

A speciality of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz is small soil animals like mites, springtails, and nematodes, which are often permanently mounted on glass slides for observation under a light microscope. Our project aims at the development of digitising methods and standards for these soil animals. The appearance of the objects on the internet should be comparable to the direct view under a microscope. To achieve this, a series of micrographs (focus series) are produced, which can be viewed online or downloaded. New imaging techniques for the light microscope will be evaluated in terms of their utility for digitisation and the metadata standards will be developed for these object classes. This resulted in a “virtual internet microscope”, VIRMISCO – The Virtual Microscope Slide Collection!
Collection material of mites (Gamasina, Uropodina), springtails (Collembola), myriapoda (Diplopda, Chilopoda) and roundworms (Nematoda) of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz was already successfully digitilized with more than 4,700 focus series of 172 taxa and 354 type specimens.
VIRMISCO: www.virmisco.org

 

Teaching

  • Practical course including lecture to the basics of Acarology at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus and at the Zittau / Görlitz University of Applied Sciences