Carbon dioxide mite removal and enumeration (Parasitidae)

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Method synopsis

Phoretic mites were removed from beetle hosts using focused carbon dioxide gas delivered through a pipette tip, which temporarily incapacitated both mites and beetles for counting and size classification.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 1 paper using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Phoretic mite discrimination among male burying beetle (<i>Nicrophorus investigator</i>) hosts (2008), Annals of the Entomological Society of America. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Collect and process wild beetles
   Beetles were drawn from common holding container at random and mites were removed with a stream of carbon dioxide focused through a pipette tip. Carbon dioxide temporarily incapacitated the mites and the beetle, but all recovered within ~5 min. All mites from each beetle were counted and separated into two size classes: large (P. carabi, >1 mm long, preliminary identification P. subterraneus) and small mites. Body weight (nearest 0.01 g), elytra length (nearest 0.1 mm), and pronotum width (nearest 0.1 mm) were measured for each wild-caught beetle.
   Quantities: 137 total male beetles collected, 1,047 total mites removed and counted (612 large, 435 small)Duration: Processing occurred after field collection periodConditions: Laboratory conditions
   Equipment: carbon dioxide, pipette tip, balance (0.01 g precision), measuring device (0.1 mm precision)
2. Conduct pairwise choice trials
   Pairwise choice trials (N = 69) of captive beetles and mites were conducted to evaluate whether mites discriminated between paired wild-caught male N. investigator beetles of different sizes. Ten P. carabi were selected at random from the large size-class mite colony and placed in a cylindrical plastic vial that was ~8 cm in height and ~4 cm in diameter. The vial was occasionally tapped to keep the mites at the bottom where they would encounter the beetles. After 5 min, the beetles were separated and a stream of carbon dioxide was used to remove the mites. The number of mites clinging to each beetle was counted, the mites were returned to the colony, and the beetles were returned to their individual plastic holding containers.
   Quantities: 69 pairwise choice trials, 10 mites per trial, ~8 cm height × ~4 cm diameter vial

Typical Equipment

• carbon dioxide
• pipette tip

Output Measurements

• mite abundance per host
• mite size class distribution

Papers Using This Protocol (1)

Species Studied With This Protocol

Places Where Used