Unveiling the spatiotemporal evolutionary patterns of eriophyoid mites in China

Eriophyoid mites are among the most species-rich superfamilies (Eriophyoidea) in the Acari, consisting of over 5000 named species. Although they exhibit a geographically uneven worldwide distribution, their regional spatiotemporal evolutionary patterns remain largely unknown. Here, we compiled a data set including 3058 occurrence records assigned into 1203 species in China. We found that eriophyoid mite species richness is higher in the southeast and lower in the northwest of China, coinciding with the 500-mm annual precipitation isoline. Using fragments of two mitochondrial genes (COI, 12S rRNA) and two nuclear genes (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA) of 304 eriophyoid mite species, we constructed a regional dated phylogenetic tree in China. Our spatiotemporal analysis revealed that mountains in eastern and southern China had high eriophyoid mite species richness and phylogenetic clustering, possessing both ancient and young mite lineages. Species distribution modelling (SDM) results showed that the predicted suitable area of eriophyoid mites slightly expanded from the last inter-glacial period to the last glacial maximum period. In comparison with the current SDM, a significantly larger distribution range was observed in future scenarios. These findings suggest that mountains in eastern and southern China acted as not only cradles—recent rapid speciation, but also museums—centre of gradual accumulation and preservation and provide insights into monitoring and conserving eriophyoid mites.