土壤甲螨是土壤动物中的重要成员，其个体发育一直是甲螨研究的难点和薄弱环节。对甲螨个体发育研究能够为其系统进化研究提供重要信息，再加以分子手段，从而可以解决众多甲螨系统进化悬而未决的问题。本项目选择我国土壤甲螨中的典型且原始类群卷甲螨科为研究对象，通过野外采集和实验室饲养对卷甲螨各个发育阶段进行系统的比较形态学研究，利用分子技术建立首个卷甲螨DNA条形码数据库。在结合申请人前期卷甲螨研究的工作基础上，实现对疑难物种、隐形物种、雌雄异形和残缺标本的快速鉴定，解决成体和幼体难以对应的问题，并利用形态和分子数据来共同探讨卷甲螨科低级阶元的系统进化关系，解决该类群低级阶元亲缘关系尚存的较大争议，打破我国甲螨研究长期局限于以成体形态研究为主的局面，并力争将该结果和方法推广至其他甲螨和土壤螨，乃至整个土壤动物的系统学研究中。

Oribatid mites are important groups of soil animal. Their immature stages are relatively poorly known. Besides molecular data, knowledge of juveniles is also valuable to define the relationships and phylogenetic positions. This project will perform a comparative morphology study on immature stages of family Phthiracaridae, which is one of the typical and primitive members of oribatid mites, by field collection and laboratory rearing, and set up a first DNA barcoding database of this group. Combining these results, we will try to achieve the rapid identification of difficult species, such as closely related species, cryptic species, sexual dimorphism species, incomplete samples and juveniles. We will also try to reveal the phylogenetic relationships between lower taxa of Phthiracaridae by using morphology and molecular data. With carrying out the project, we will change the long-term situation that Oribatida was studied mainly focusing on classical taxonomy of adults in China. We hope that the research results and methods will be extended to the other oribatid groups, soil mites, and even other soil animals.