Family DINYCHIDAE Berlese, 1916

Museums

Regional Maps

• Dinychini Berlese, A. 1916. Centuria seconda di Acari nuovi. Redia. Giornale di entomologia, Firenze 12: 125-177.

Introduction

The cosmopolitan family Dinychidae includes about 30 species. Hirschmann & Wisniewski (1993) placed all the species in the single genus Dinychus. They arranged the species in a series of species groups, which were previously treated as genera or subgenera. Most of the species occur in Europe, with some in North America, South America and Japan (Hirschmann & Wisniewski 1993). The most recent taxonomic survey of the genus was by Athias-Binche et al. (1989), and the European fauna was reviewed by Karg (1989) and Mašán (2001). These mites are found in moss, soil and litter, under bark, and in the nests of small mammals and ants. Only one species has been described from Australia. Dinychus greensladeae was abundant and widespread in leaf litter and moss in Tasmania (Błoszyk & Halliday 1995). More extensive collecting is likely to reveal the presence of Dinychidae in other areas of Australia, such as the unidentified species reported by Callan et al. (2011) and Majer et al. (2013).

General References

Athias-Binche, F., Błoszyk, J., & Olszanowski, Z. 1989. Dinychus ruseki n.sp. (Acari: Uropodina) from Canada, with remarks on the habitats and distribution of the members of the genus Dinychus. Canadian Journal of Zoology 67: 1482–1488

Błoszyk, J. & Halliday, R.B. 1995. A new species of Dinychus Kramer from Tasmania (Acarina: Dinychidae). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 34: 187-191

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

Hirschmann, W. & Wisniewski, J. 1993. Acari Parasitiformes. Supercohors Atrichopygidiina Hirschmann 1975. Die Uropodiden der Erde. Acarologie. Schriftenreihe für Vergleichende Milbenkunde 40: 1-466

Karg, W. 1989. Acari (Acarina), Milben, Unterordnung Parasitiformes (Anactinochaeta). Uropodina Kramer, Schildkrötenmilben. Die Tierwelt Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Meeresteile 67: 1–203

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.

Mašán, P. 2001. Mites of the Cohort Uropodina (Acarina, Mesostigmata) in Slovakia. Annotationes Zoologicae et Botanicae, Bratislava 223: 1–320

History of changes