[The origin and evolution of parasitism on terrestrial vertebrates in insects, mites, and ticks].
Coexistence of terrestrial vertebrates and arthropods has been continuing over 200 million years; various forms of parasitism originated independently in various groups of arthropods during this period. The association of Acari and insects with nests and shelters of their hosts (nidicoly) played the main role in the origin of parasitism in these major groups of arthropods. The primary step in the evolution of parasitism was the permanent habitation in nests and borrows of mammals and birds in Mesozoic era. The second step was a substitution of various forms of schizophagy by the regular feeding on products of vital activity and dead parts of host body. The next step was the feeding on various body parts of vertebrate hosts, namely skin, hair, feathers, external excreta, and drops of blood. The final step was the development of the ability to damage skin and suck out the blood of vertebrates. In some taxa of astigmatid mites the parasitism on birds originated from phoresy: hypopi (heteromorphous deutonymphs) obtained the ability to absorb the liquid nutrients from hair follicles and subcutaneous tissues through the cuticle. The development of haematophagous feeding on mammals in several families of Diptera was the second way of the origin of parasitism. Highly mobile dipterans with the piercing-sucking or licking mouthparts were able to change easily from the accidental puncturing of the host skin or licking of the blood, pus, and mucus to the obligatory haematophagy. The evolution of some arthropod taxa did not went beyond a primary domination of spatial relations, as in many astigmatid mites, or trophic relations in the form of micropredatory, as in the haematophagous Diptera.
Balashov
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D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D008322:Mammals / Q000469:parasitology*; D008925:Mites / Q000502:physiology*; D013987:Ticks / Q000502:physiology*