Diversity of soil inhabiting oribatida (Acari) under cultivated and uncultivated land types from Punjab, Pakistan

Suborder Oribatida is land-dwelling group of mites distributed across different geographic regions of the world. This study shows the assessment of diversity, richness, evenness, and abundance of families of Oribatid from uncultivated and cultivated soils collected from ten different localities of Punjab, Pakistan. Overall, 9 families of Oribatida were observed in both soil types having Oribatellidae, Oppiidae, and Scheloribatidae as dominating families. Uncultivated soil had more richness (S=07), abundance (46.01 ± 2.61) and Shannon diversity index (H’=1.77 ± 0.03) compared to cultivated soil with richness (S=5), abundance (25.35 ± 1.14) and Shannon index (H’= 1.47 ± 0.03). Maximum abundance value of oribatid mites (62 ± 11.87) was recorded from Murree for uncultivated soil while in case of cultivated soil, it was recorded from Faisalabad (29.83 ± 7.28). The maximum family richness of Oribatid mites was observed in Faisalabad and Chakwal (S=07) while minimum family richness (S=05) was observed from T.T. Singh.