Family CAECILIUSIDAE

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Introduction

The Caeciliusidae are a large family of 18 genera and nearly 450 species, among which fourteen genera and 43 species are listed for the Australian fauna. They are a difficult group taxonomically and are the biggest family of leaf-inhabiting Psocoptera. Most of the species are placed in Caecilius, sensu lato, a genus which is very widely distributed. Many of the species are at times very abundant on rainforest trees and shrubs and on broad-leaved evergreen plants of other plant communities.

The family name Caeciliidae was emended by the Commission (ICZN 1996) to Caeciliusidae, so removing the homonymy with Caeciliidae Rafinesque, 1814 (Amphibia, Gymnophiona).

In caeciliusids the antennae are 13-segmented the tarsi are 2-segmented. The claws do not have a tooth and the pulvillus is fine. The head is short. The ocelli are grouped on a tubercle. The labial palps are often somewhat triangular and protruding but not always conspicuously so. In the forewing the radial sector and the media are usually fused for part of their length; the areola postica is free, not joined to the media by a crossvein or by fusion; the branches of the veins have a single row of setae and the margin more than one row, but the marginal setae do not cross one another as they do in the Pseudocaeciliidae; CuP may be glabrous or setose. The wing membrane is nearly always glabrous. The gonapophyses are reduced to a ventral and dorsal valve, with the external valve reduced to little more than a small sclerotised area with one or two setae or without setae. The eggs are smooth, are laid in groups and are covered with silken strands but without any encrustation of debris.

Smithers (1995) recorded Caecilius sp. from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean.

General References

Enderlein, G. 1903. Die Copeognathen des indo-australischen Faunengebietes. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici (Zoologica) 1: 179-344 12 figs pls iii-xiv

ICZN 1996. Opinion 1830. Caeciliidae Kolbe, 1880 (Insecta, Psocoptera): spelling emended to Caeiliusidae, so removing the homonymy with Caeciliidae Rafinesque, 1814 (Amphibia, Gymnophiona). Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 53(1): 68-69

Mockford, E.L. 1965. The genus Caecilius (Psocoptera: Caeciliidae). Part I. Some groups and the North American species of the flavidus group. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 91: 121-166 10 pls

Mockford, E.L. 1966. The genus Caecilius (Psocoptera: Caeciliidae). Part II. Revision of the species groups, and the North American species of the fasciatus, confluens and africanus groups. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 92: 133-172 pls 9-15

Mockford, E.L. 1969. The genus Caecilius (Psocoptera: Caeciliidae). Part III. The North American species of the alcinus, caligonus and subflavus groups. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 95: 77-151 pls 1-16

Mockford, E.L. 1989. Xanthocaecilius (Psocoptera: Caeciliidae), a new genus from the Western Hemisphere: I. Description, species complexes and species of the quillayute and granulosus complexes. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 114: 265-295 53 figs

Mockford, E.L. 1993. North American Psocoptera (Insecta). Fauna and Flora Handbook No. 10. Gainesville, Florida : Sandhill Crane Press pp. i-xviii 455.

Schmidt, E.R. & Thornton, I.W.B. 1993. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria, Melbourne 53(2): 137-220 249 figs [Date published 1993: publication dated 31 December 1992]

Smithers, C.N. 1995. Psocoptera (Insecta) of Christmas Island. Invertebrate Taxonomy 9: 529-561

Thorton, I.W.B., Lee, S.S. & Chui, W.D. 1972. Insects of Micronesia: Psocoptera. Insects of Micronesia 8(4): 45-144 (32 figs)

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