Update of the national checklist and new records of oribatid mites (Acari: Sarcoptiformes) in conserved relicts within urban areas in Bogota D.C. (Colombia)

Conserved urban relicts represent unvaluable reservoirs of biodiversity. In Bogotá (Colombia), these ecosystems remain poorly studied, and particularly oribatid mites have been historically neglected. We explored the species composition in two conserved relicts within the city: Jardín Botánico de Bogotá Jose Celestino Mutis (JBB) and Las Mercedes forests, one of the last remnants of the nearly extinct ecosystem ‘fluvio-lacustrine forest’. Our findings highlight the importance of exploring -even- easily reachable reservoirs of biodiversity in urban areas, and represent an opportunity to reinvigorate the study of oribatid mites in Colombia. In this work, we report 17 new records for the country and update the checklist of oribatid mites for the Republic of Colombia with the published literature during the past 4 years. The current inventory now includes 87 reported oribatid mite species, marking an increase from the 68 species documented in the 2020 revision (published in 2022).