Family ATURIDAE Thor, 1900

Museums

Regional Maps

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

Introduction

The family Aturidae is a very large and heterogeneous cosmopolitan assemblage of water mites, which is probably not monophyletic (Harvey 1998; Walter et al. 2009). The adults may be found swimming in streams and pools, and in mound springs and interstitial water, but different genera vary widely in their biology. Where the larvae are known, they are parasites of aquatic insects, especially Chironomidae. The Australian fauna is very rich, with 111 species in 13 genera. 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. Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Aturidae were also reported by Malipatil & Blyth (1982), Boulton & Harvey (2003) and Boulton et al. (2004). The genus-level classification was reviewed by Smith et al. (2015).

General References

Boulton, A., Harvey, M. & Proctor, H. 2004. Of spates and species: responses by interstitial water mites to simulated spates in a subtropical Australian river. Experimental and Applied Acarology 34: 149–169

Boulton, A.J. & Harvey, M.S. 2003. Effects of a simulated spate on water mites in the hyporheic zone of an Australian subtropical river. pp. 57–73 in Smith, I.M. An Acarological Tribute to David R. Cook (From Yankee Springs to Wheeny Creek). West Bloomfield, Michigan : Indira Publishing House.

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.

Malipatil, M.B. & Blyth, J.D. 1982. A qualitative study of the macroinvertebrate fauna of the Thomson River and its major tributaries, Gippsland, Victoria. Reports of the National Museum of Victoria 1: 1-95

Smith, I.M., Cook, D.R. & Gerecke, R. 2015. Revision of the status of some genus-level water mite taxa in the families Pionidae Thor, 1900, Aturidae Thor, 1900, and Nudomideopsidae Smith, 1990. Zootaxa 3919: 111-156.

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