Although the ancestral home of chelicerates was the sea, the vast majority of modern species live on land. Most students of spiders and mites also restrict themselves to terrestrial habitats. However, a surprising number of mites (Arachnida: Acari) have returned to a watery existence. Approximately 7000 species from the Mesostigmata, Astigmata, Oribatida, and especially the Prostigmata, now live in marine and freshwater habitats. In Aquatic Mites, a dozen chapters explore the distribution, ecology, behavior, genetics, and evolution of the most diverse of these astonishing arachnids. The results of these studies raise as many interesting questions as they answer, and should provoke more investigations of the biology of freshwater and marine Acari.

H.C. Proctor/ Aquatic mites: from genes to communities ¿ an introduction.G. Søvik/ The biology and life history of arctic populations of the littoral mite Ameronothrus lineatus (Acari, Oribatida).D.J. Marshall & P. Convey/ Latitudinal variation in habitat specificity of ameronothrid mites (Oribatida).I. Bartsch/ Geographical and ecological distribution of halacarid genera and species (Acari: Halacaridae).I. Rey, B.A. Dorda & A.G. Valdecasas/ Traditional water mite fixatives and their compatibility with later DNA studies.D.D. Edwards, D.E. Deatherage & B.R. Ernsting/ Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis of kinship within host-associated populations of the symbiotic water mite Unionicola foili (Acari: Unionicolidae).M.R. Forbes, K.E. Muma & B.P. Smith/ Recapture of male and female dragonflies in relation to parasitism by mites, time of season, wing length and wing cell symmetry.P. Martin/ Specificity of attachment sites of larval water mites (Hydrachnidia, Acari) on their insect hosts (Chironomidae, Diptera) - evidence from some stream-living species.B.P. Smith & J. Florentino/ Communication via sex pheromones within and among Arrenurus spp. mites (Acari: Hydrachnida; Arrenuridae).H.C. Proctor & N. Graga/ Red, distasteful water mites: did fish make them that way?A. Boulton, M. Harvey & H. Proctor/ Of spates and species: responses by interstitial water mites to simulated spates in a subtropical Australian river.T. Goldschmidt/ Environmental parameters determining water mite assemblages in Costa Rica.A. Di Sabatino, A. Boggero, F.P. Miccoli & B. Cicolani/ Diversity, distribution and ecology of water mites (Acari: Hydrachnidia and Halacaridae) in high alpine lakes (Central Alps, Italy).