Family CTENACARIDAE Grandjean, 1954

Museums

Regional Maps

• Ctenacaridae Grandjean, F. 1954. Essai de classification des Oribates (Acariens). Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 78: 421-446.

Introduction

The family Ctenacaridae is small, with five genera and six species world-wide (Schatz 2011). The family has a tropical and subtropical distribution, but is less diverse in the Southern Hemisphere (Subias 2011). Its species are found in soil in dry habitats such as deserts and dry forests (Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). The family is represented in Australia by Ctenacarus araneola, which is virtually cosmopolitan, and by unidentified species of Ctenacarus. All the Australian specimens were collected in litter in Eucalyptus woodland or shrubland in South Australia and Western Australia (Colloff & Halliday 1998).

General References

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

Norton, R.A. & Behan-Pelletier, V.M. 2009. Suborder Oribatida. pp. 430–564 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

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]

History of changes