In short- or long-term relationships, size does matter: body size patterns in the Mesostigmata (Acari: Parasitiformes)

We examined a dataset of body sizes comprising 3209 species of Mesostigmata to test two hypotheses regarding body size patterns: that species living in symbiotic relationships differ in size compared with those that are free-living, and that mite species show geographic body size gradients. We found that Mesostigmata in symbiotic relationships are considerably larger than those that are free-living, but the type of symbiosis (commensal versus...