Family ACERENTOMIDAE

Acerentomidae

© Copyright A. Hastings. CSIRO Entomology.

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Introduction

The Acerentomidae is a cosmopolitan family. The body form is slender and the mouth-parts are slender and prolonged. Lacinia of maxillae are long and pointed. Tracheae and thoracic spiracles are absent.

The family was erected by Silvestri (1907) when he described the new order Protura, based on his new genus and species Acerentomon doderoi. Womersley (1927) erected the subfamilies Acerentominae and Meroentomoninae, the latter based on an unnecessary replacement of Protentomon by Meroentomon. Protentomon was restored by Mills (1932) and thus also the subfamily name Protentominae (as Protentomoninae). The subfamily Protentominae was accorded family status by Ewing (1936).

Yin (1984) divided the Acerentomidae and created two new families, Berberentulidae (as Berberentomidae ?lapsus) and Acerellidae. In her classification, two genera found in Australia, Acerentulus and Australentulus, are retained in the Acerentomidae but four other genera, Amphientulus, Baculentulus, Berberentulus and Gracilentulus, are placed in the Berberentulidae. This system, however, is not followed by Imadaté (1991), who retains these genera in the Acerentomidae and whose classification is used in the Catalogue.

The family is represented in Australia by seven genera and 22 described species. At least three species, Acerentulus confinis (Berlese), Berberentulus capensis (Womersley) and Gracilentulus gracilis (Berlese), are probably introduced.

General References

Ewing, H.E. 1936. Synonymy and synopsis of the genera of the order Protura. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 49: 156-166

Imadaté, G. 1991. Protura. pp. 265-268 in CSIRO (ed.). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Melbourne : Melbourne University Press Vol. 1 xiii 542 pp.

Mills, H.B. 1932. Catalogue of the Protura. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 27: 125-130

Silvestri, F. 1907. Descrizione di un novo genere d'insetti apterigoti rappresentante di un novo ordine. Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della Facoltà Agraria in Portici 1: 296-311

Womersley, H. 1927. Notes on the British species of Protura, with description of new genera and species. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 63: 140-148

Yin, W.Y. 1984. A new idea on phylogeny of Protura with approach to its origin and systematic position. Scientia Sinica B 27(2): 149-160

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