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Family ASCIDAE Voigts & Oudemans, 1905

Introduction

The genera that were previously placed in the family Ascidae have now been distributed among three families; Ascidae, Blattisociidae, and Melicharidae, following the revised classification presented by Lindquist et al. (2009). Ascidae occur in soil and litter, under bark, and in compost and bracket fungi, and some species disperse by phoresy on Diptera and Coleoptera. Most are predators, which feed on other mites, nematodes, and the eggs and larvae of small insects, while a few species are fungivorous. The Australian genera of Ascidae were reviewed by Halliday et al. (1998), but new species have been described in several genera since that time. The fauna now includes 31 species in ten genera, but undescribed or unidentified species in many genera are known to exist in collections. Beaulieu & Weeks (2007) reviewed the state of knowledge and ecological significance of this group in Australia. Unidentified Ascidae have been reported from Australia a number of times, for example by Callan et al. (2011) and Majer et al. (2013). All the Australian species were included in the world-wide catalogue of Moraes et al (2016).

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
01-May-2017 Acari 27-Jan-2017 MODIFIED Dr Bruce Halliday
07-May-2013 07-May-2013 MODIFIED
06-Nov-2011 06-Nov-2011 MOVED
08-Aug-2010 08-Aug-2010 MOVED
09-Jul-2010 09-Jul-2010 ADDED
08-Jul-2010 MODIFIED