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Family CUNAXIDAE Thor, 1902

Introduction

The Australian fauna of Cunaxidae has never been studied systematically. Only five species have been identified, and two genera are known only from unidentified species. All members of the family are predators, which occur in soil, leaf litter, grass, and moss, where they feed on other microinvertebrates. They capture their prey using raptorial palps, which usually carry heavy terminal spurs (Walter et al. 2009). Some species may be beneficial, contributing to the control of pest nematodes and scale insects (Gerson et al. 2003).

Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Cunaxidae were also reported by Wood (1971), Springett (1976), O'Dowd (1994), Longstaff et al. (1999), Walter (1999), Osler et al. (2000), Callan et al. (2011), Beyer et al. (2011), Proctor et al. (2011) and Majer et al. (2013).

Halliday (1998) wrongly recorded Neocunaxoides latisetosus (Den Heyer, 1980) from Australia. This species is known only from Africa. Cunaxa lukoschusi Smiley 1992 was described from "Bukit Fraser, Australia". This appears to be a labelling error, which should read "Bukit Fraser, Malaysia".

 

General References

Callan, S.K., Majer, J.D., Edwards, K. & Moro, D. 2011. Documenting the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology 50: 323–343

Den Heyer, 1980. Scutopalus, a new cunaxid genus from the Ethiopian Region (Prostigmata: Acari). Acarologia 21: 187-193

Gerson, U., Smiley, R.L. & Ochoa, R. 2003. Mites (Acari) for Pest Control. Oxford : Blackwell Science 539 pp.

Halliday, R.B. 1998. Mites of Australia : A Checklist and Bibliography. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 317 pp.

Longstaff, B.C., Greenslade, P.J.M., Colloff, M., Reid, I., Hart, P. & Packer, I. 1999. Managing Soils in Agriculture. The Impact of Soil Tillage Practices on Soil Fauna. Canberra, Australia : Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Publication No 99/18. pp. 65.

Majer, J.D., Callan, S.K., Edwards, K., Gunawardene, N.R. & Taylor, C.K. 2013. Baseline survey of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 83: 13-112.

O'Dowd, D.J. 1994. Mite association with the leaf domatia of coffee (Coffea arabica) in north Queensland, Australia. Bulletin of Entomological Research 84: 361-366

Osler, G.H.R., van Vliet, P.C.J., Gauci, C.S. & Abbott, L.K. 2000. Changes in free living soil nematode and micro-arthropod communities under a canola-wheat-lupin rotation in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Soil Research 38: 47–59

Proctor, H., Kanowski, J., Catterall, C.P., Wardell-Johnson, G. & Reis, T. 2011. Rainforest-restoration success as judged by assemblages of soil- and litter-dwelling mites (Arachnida: Acari). Zoosymposia 6: 234–254

Springett, J.A. 1976. The effect of planting Pinus pinaster Ait. on populations of soil microarthropods and on litter decomposition at Gnangara, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 1: 83-87

Walter, D.E. 1999. Cryptic inhabitants of a noxious weed: Mites (Arachnida: Acari) on Lantana camara L. invading forests in Queensland. Australian Journal of Entomology 38: 197-200

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.

Wood, T.G. 1971. The distribution and abundance of Folsomides deserticola (Collembola: Isotomidae) and other micro-arthropods in arid and semi-arid soils in southern Australia, with a note on nematode populations. Pedobiologia 11: 446-468

 

History of changes

Note that this list may be incomplete for dates prior to September 2013.
Published As part of group Action Date Action Type Compiler(s)
05-Dec-2019 Acari 20-Sep-2021 MODIFIED Dr Bruce Halliday
01-May-2017 Acari 20-Sep-2021 MODIFIED Dr Bruce Halliday
07-May-2013 20-Sep-2021 MODIFIED
29-Jul-2010 29-Jul-2010 MOVED
07-May-2013 09-Jul-2010 ADDED
08-Jul-2010 MODIFIED