Global patterns of herbivorous eriophyoid mite species diversity: A reply to Ozman-Sullivan and Sullivan (2024)

Aim: The global patterns of phytophagous eriophyoid mite species diversity have been poorly studied for several decades. In a previous paper, we compiled a dataset covering 97% (4278/4400) of named eriophyoid mite species and 22,973 occurrence sites from 102 countries (Li et al., 2023). Using this dataset, we aimed to predict the global distribution patterns and species diversity of eriophyoid mites. Our findings revealed that the species richness of eriophyoid mites is particularly high in temperate regions, which is in contrast to the patterns of plants (Li et al., 2023). However, our results were criticized by Ozman-Sullivan and Sullivan (2024), who argue that our analysis is based on a biased dataset of eriophyoid mites, because it is likely that there are many undescribed eriophyoid species in the tropics.Location: Global.Taxon: Eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea).Main Conclusions: However, using plant species to predict eriophyoid mite diversity, as Ozman-Sullivan and Sullivan propose, may result in an overestimation of species richness. We leave 'whether the species richness of eriophyid mites is high in tropical regions' as an open question and a potential area for future research.