VOLUTIONARY PLASTICITY OF HIGHLY SPECIALIZED ORGANISMS WITH ERIOPHYOID MITES (ACARIFORMES: ERIOPHYOIDEA) AS AN EXAMPLE
Eriophyoids is a group of highly specialized plant-feeding acariform mites. As a result of adaptation to phytoparasitism, they lacked III and IV pairs of legs and acquired elongated vermiform body and unique structure of gnathosoma. Despite the high degree of specialization, eriophyoid mites demonstrate remarkable evolutionary plasticity which manifests itself in numerous morphological reversions, parallelisms, and modifications associated with occupying variety of niches, processes of gall formation, transitions to new groups of hosts, and various adaptations to climate change.