Abstract
The succession of the oribatid fauna during decomposition process of fresh leaves was investigated. On the 4th of June, 1969, healthy fresh green leaves were picked from three kinds of plants, namely, needles (Abies sachalinensis), broad-leaves (Acer mono and Quercus crispula), and sasa (Sasa Paniculata). The survey was done on the 9th of August, 1969, on the 22nd of September, 1969, on the 24th of January, and on the 4th of June, 1970. All kinds of leaves were prepared with and without p-dichlorobenzene.The changes in dry weight of the leaves without insecticide were more or less steepened as compared with that of the leaves with insecticide. In all, 781 adult oribatid mites representing 40 species were collected. Nine of the 40 oribatid species were common to both with and without insecticide all of kinds of leaves examined. Of these nine species, Oppia nove, Damaeidae sp. and Steganacarus striculus were regarded as dominant species and the dominancy varied among the kinds of leaves or seasons. The total number of species captured is 30 in needles, 26 in broad-leaves and 32 in sasa.
