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The article presents a review of literature and practice on horizontal governance in Canada in the early 2000s. It suggests the progress made with respect to practices and highlights the declining corporate interest in the form of commissioned reviews, stock-takes and research. Dynamics and scenarios for managing horizontal issues in Ottawa are explored.

Summaries of taxonomic knowledge are provided for all acarine groups in Canada, accompanied by references to relevant publications, changes in classification at the family level since 1979, and notes on biology relevant to estimating their diversity. Nearly 3000 described species from 269 families are recorded in the country, representing a 56% increase from the 1917 species reported by Lindquist et al. (1979). An additional 42 families are known from Canada only from material identified to family- or genus-level. Of the total 311 families known in Canada, 69 are newly recorded since 1979, excluding apparent new records due solely to classification changes. This substantial progress is most evident in Oribatida and Hydrachnidia, for which many regional checklists and family-level revisions have been published. Except for recent taxonomic leaps in a few other groups, particularly of symbiotic mites (Astigmata: feather mites; Mesostigmata: Rhinonyssidae), knowledge remains limited for most other taxa, for which most species records are unpublished and may require verification. Taxonomic revisions are greatly needed for a large majority of families in Canada. Based in part on species recorded in adjacent areas of the USA and on hosts known to be present here, we conservatively estimate that nearly 10,000 species of mites occur in Canada, but the actual number could be 15,000 or more. This means that at least 70% of Canada's mite fauna is yet unrecorded. Much work also remains to match existing molecular data with species names, as less than 10% of the ~7500 Barcode Index Numbers for Canadian mites in the Barcode of Life Database are associated with named species. Understudied hosts and terrestrial and aquatic habitats require investigation across Canada to uncover new species and to clarify geographic and ecological distributions of known species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basilobelba werneri (Oribatida, Basilobelbidae) was collected from an alpine cloud forest in Guatemala. This is the first representative of the family Basilobelbidae in the Guatemalan fauna. A supplementary description of adult B. werneri is presented along with summarized diagnostic morphological traits. The juvenile instars of B. werneri are described for the first time. The larva is characterized by the presence of 11 pairs of gastronotic setae, of which c1 (short), da and dm (medium-sized) slightly thickened, barbed, la, lm, lp, h1, and h2 long, thick, narrowed distally, heavily barbed, and c2, c3 and h3 short, setiform, roughened. The proto-, deuto- and tritonymph are characterized by the presence of 12 pairs of short, setiform gastronotic setae.

Iphidonopsis sculptus Gwiazdowicz, 2004, is currently known only from the type locality in eastern Poland and a record in southwestern Finland (Huhta, 2016). Here, we record this species from twelve localities elsewhere (Europe, Siberia, Far East of Russia, Canada) indicating its broadly Holarctic geographical range. Another genus member, Iphidonopsis magnanalis (Ma Yin, 1999), is known only from China. About half of Iphidonopsis sculptus records are associated with litter of coniferous or mixed forests, but the others, including samples with juveniles (deutonymphs), were found in bracket fungi or under tree bark. The finding of two adult females on a bark beetle, Dryocoetes affaber (Mannerheim) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), suggests a phoretic association, though members of the closely related genus Zerconopsis Hull, 1918 as well as of all of the subfamily Arctoseiinae are known only from phoretic dispersal by nematoceran dipterans. The morphology of adults and an immature instar (deutonymph) of I. sculptus is redescribed and newly described, respectively, and illustrated in detail. A subdivision of the subfamily Arctoseiinae Evans, 1963 into three tribes is proposed-Arctoseiini Evans, 1963 (including Arctoseius Thor, 1930 and Iphidozercon Berlese, 1903), Zerconopsini tribe n. (Zerconopsis Hull, 1918; Xenoseius Lindquist Evans, 1965; and Iphidonopsis Gwiazdowicz, 2004), and Maxiniini tribe n. (Maxinia Lindquist Makarova, 2012).

The gamasine genus Berlesia Canestrini, 1884, is revived and further diagnosed, based on descriptions of adult females, males and nymphs of three new species (B. hospitabilis sp. nov., B. multisetosa sp. nov., B. vorontsovi sp. nov.) ectoparasitic on raspy crickets of three genera of Gryllacrididae (Ensifera) from Australia and the Philippines. A tight sister relationship of Berlesia with the monobasic genus Katydiseius Fain Lukoschus, 1983, known only from a pseudophylline katydid in Malaysia, is proposed. The subfamily Katydiseiinae Fain Lukoschus, 1983 (previously included in the family Otopheidomenidae in the superfamily Phytoseioidea) is redefined to include only those two genera, and moved to the dermanyssoid family Laelapidae, while its previously other monobasic genus, Eickwortius Zhang, 1995, is retained tentatively in the family Otopheidomenidae. Among other taxa relevant to Katydiseiinae reviewed here, Berlesia cultrigera Berlese, 1910a is transferred to the genus Orthopteroseius Mo, 1996, at present Otopheidomenidae, as Orthopteroseius cultrigerum (Berlese) comb. nov., and Berlesia nuda Berlese, 1910b is transferred to the genus Prasadiseius Wainstein, 1972, at present Otopheidomenidae, as Prasadiseius nudum (Berlese) comb. nov. A key to the two genera and five species recognized as belonging in Katydiseiinae is presented. Notable morphological traits of Berlesia, including only deutonymphs equipped with well-developed claws and males with dimorphically more elongated salivary stylets, are discussed. The one known life cycle of a species of Berlesia, B. hospitabilis sp. nov., includes protonymphipary, followed by a fully functioning deutonymph, and male copulation with pharate females-traits, rarely or not known among gamasine mite associates of invertebrates. The possible significance of elongate spermatodactyls and male reduced feeding are explored.

A new species of the ectoparasitic mite genus Podapolipus Rovelli Grassi, 1888 from a recently described species of the raspy cricket genus Chauliogryllacris Rentz, in Rentz and John,1990 (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae) is described. The main distinctions of Podapolipus gryllacridi n. sp. from its described congeners from orthopterans are the larval female and adult male having all dorsal and ventral idiosomatic setae, except the greatly elongated pair of scapular setae (and the caudal setae of the larval female), reduced to the size of microsetae; the larval female having separate tergites C and D; the male having an entire prodorsal shield, with apex of the aedeagus between bases of setae v1; and the adult female having smooth dorsal shields. Novel biological features of this parasite include its adult females' dwelling in the hollow sternal apodemes of their host, and its larval females using their host's other parasite, a gamasine mite, as phoretic and facultative hyperparasitic hosts. Keys are presented for the larval females and adult males of Podapolipus species associated with orthopterans. Problems with the generic concept of Podapolipus and closely related genera are reviewed. This is the first record of a podapolipid associated with orthopterans of the family Gryllacrididae.