Family ARRENURIDAE Thor, 1900

Museums

Regional Maps

• Arrenuridae Thor, S. 1900. Prodromus Systematis Hydrachnidarum. Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne, Oslo 38: 263-266.

Introduction

The Australian fauna of Arrenuridae includes 62 species, all but one of them in the large genus Arrenurus. They are aquatic mites, which may be found swimming in bodies of fresh water. The adults of these species are predators that feed on other aquatic invertebrates, while the larvae are parasites that attack a wide variety of aquatic insects, especially flies and dragonflies (Walter et al. 2009). The largest single work on Australian water mites is by Cook (1986), the world fauna was catalogued by Viets (1987), and the Australian fauna was reviewed by Harvey (1998), but many more species in this family have been described after 1999.

General References

Cook, D.R. 1986. Water mites from Australia. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 40: 1-568

Harvey, M.S. 1998. The Australian Water Mites. A Guide to the Families and Genera. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 150 pp.

Viets, K.O. 1987. Die Milben des Süsswassers (Hydrachnellae und Halacaridae (Part.), Acari). 2. Katalog. Berlin : Paul Parey 1012 pp.

Walter, D.E., Lindquist, E.E., Smith, I.M., Cook, D.R. & Krantz, G.W. 2009. Order Trombidiformes. pp. 233-420 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

History of changes