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The members of the family Scutacaridae (Acari, Heterostigmatina, Pygmephoroidea) are soil-living, fungivorous mites, and some of them are known to be associated with other animals. After reviewing the mites’ behavioural and morphological adaptations to their animal-associated lifestyle, the present publication shows the result of a thorough literature research on scutacarids living in different kinds of associations with other animal taxa. It revealed that within the more than 800 scutacarid species that have been described so far, about the half of them can be found together with various animal taxa. The respective scutacarid species can be phoretic using their hosts for dispersal, they can be inquilines of their hosts benefiting from favourable conditions in the hosts’ nests, or they can be both. The highest number of scutacarid species, by far, (n = 214) is associated with ants. The second highest number can be found on beetles (94; mainly on ground beetles, Carabidae), followed by mammals (52), bees and wasps (35) and other insect taxa (39), and some species can be found together with birds (10) and arachnids (6). The most frequent genera Scutacarus, Imparipes and Archidispus show host preferences: Scutacarus and Imparipes tend to prefer ants, while Archidispus prefers beetles. Usually, scutacarid species are rather specialised on one host genus or one host family, but some seem to be host generalists. The possible influence of scutacarids on their hosts is not known yet, but they could play a sanitary role in their hosts’ nests.

Tiny mites on a great journey – a review on scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines (Heterostigmatina, Pygmephoroidea, Scutacaridae)