Family APHELACARIDAE Grandjean, 1954

Museums

Regional Maps

• Aphelacarinae Grandjean, F. 1954. Etude sur les Palaeacaroides (Acariens, Oribates). Mémoires du Muséum nationale d'Histoire naturelle Series A (Zoologie) [1950-1992] 7: 179-274.

Introduction

The family Aphelacaridae is small but cosmopolitan, with only three genera and four species world-wide (Schatz et al. 2011). These species occur in soil in dry habitats, including deserts and dry forests (Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). The family is known from Australia only on the basis of unidentified species of Aphelacarus. Earlier records were summarised by Colloff & Halliday (1998). The genus has since been recorded by Kinnear & Tongway (2004) and Beyer et al. (2011). All the Australian records are from dry habitats such as Eucalyptus woodland, mallee, and shrubland, and appear to include more than one species.

General References

Beyer, S., Kinnear, A., Hutley, L.B., McGuiness, K. & Gibb, K. 2011. Assessing the relationship between fire and grazing on soil characteristics and mite communities in a semi-arid savanna of northern Australia. Pedobiologia 54: 195–200

Colloff, M.J. & Halliday, R.B. 1998. Oribatid Mites: A Catalogue of the Australian Genera and Species. Melbourne : CSIRO Publications.

Kinnear, A. & Tongway, D. 2004. Grazing impacts on soil mites of semi-arid chenopod shrublands in Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 56: 63–82

Norton, R.A. & Behan-Pelletier, V.M. 2009. Suborder Oribatida. pp. 430–564 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

Schatz, H., Behan-Pelletier, V.M., OConnor, B.M. & Norton, R.A. 2011. Suborder Oribatida van der Hammen, 1968. pp. 141–148 in Zhang, Z.-Q. Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness. Auckland : Magnolia Press.

History of changes