Family COSMOCHTHONIIDAE Grandjean, 1946

Museums

Regional Maps

• Cosmochthoniidae Grandjean, F. 1946. La signification évolutive de quelques caractères des Acariens. Bulletin Biologique de la France et de la Belgique 79: 297-325.

Introduction

The family Cosmochthoniidae includes four genera and 48 species world-wide (Schatz et al. 2011). The family is cosmopolitan, with its greatest diversity in the Western Palaearctic Region (data from Subias 2011). The Australian fauna includes one endemic species of Cosmochthonius from moss and litter from temperate forest in South Australia, as well as a series of records of unidentified species of Cosmochthonius from widespread localities (summarised by Colloff & Halliday 1998). The other known Australian species, Phyllozetes emmae (Berlese) is widespread in the Palaearctic Region, and has been recorded in the USA and India.

General References

Colloff, M.J. & Halliday, R.B. 1998. Oribatid Mites: A Catalogue of the Australian Genera and Species. Melbourne : CSIRO Publications.

Schatz, H., Behan-Pelletier, V.M., OConnor, B.M. & Norton, R.A. 2011. Suborder Oribatida van der Hammen, 1968. pp. 141–148 in Zhang, Z.-Q. Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness. Auckland : Magnolia Press.

Subias, L.S February 2011. Listado sistemático, sinonímico y biogeográfico de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes: Oribatida) del mundo (excepto fósiles). Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain. http://www.ucm.es/info/zoo/Artropodos/Catalogo.pdf [date of access 1 October 2011]

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