Abstract
Abstract Laboratory rearing of Piona exigua Viets was conducted in order to describe aspects of the life history of this freshwater planktonic mite. Unlike the majority of other species in this genus, P. exigua is not parasitic upon aquatic insects during the larval stage. The predominant developmental pathway followed is that from egg through larva and protonymph stages to the deutonymph while still inside the egg case. Less than 5% of total larvae reared (>400) emerged from the egg case before continuing their development. No Piona larvae were found as ectoparasites of chironomid imagines caught in the field, while very few larvae were found in the plankton of Lake Hayes. Examination of diagnostic taxonomic features of adult Piona collected from various South Island sites provided ambiguous results as to the specific classification of the material. It appears that Piona exigua Viets may cover 1 species with variable features previously regarded as diagnostic. A short description of the range of habitats...
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