Australian Biological Resources Study

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Family ERYTHRAEIDAE Robineau-Desvoidy, 1828

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Family ERYTHRAEIDAE Robineau-Desvoidy, 1828

Introduction

The Erythraeidae is a large cosmopolitan family of about 300 species of mites that are found on soil, in litter, and on vegetation (Walter et al. 2009). The adults are large and conspicuous, often brightly coloured in red and orange. The adults are predators, which are often found to be beneficial in contributing to the control of pests such as spider mites, scale insects, and aphids (reviewed by Gerson et al. 2003). The larvae of Erythraeidae are parasites on many different groups of insects and other arthropods. Many species and genera are known from either the larva or the adult, but not both, and this complicates any attempt to use them as biological control agents (Welbourn 1983). This complex life cycle also means that some genera that are based on either the larva or the adult will be found to be synonymous when laboratory rearing allows the correct correlation of all stages of the life cycle. The Australian fauna has been well studied, with 21 genera and 130 species, largely due to the work of R.V. Southcott. Almost half the known Australian species belong to the large genus Leptus, whose larvae are very common parasites of insects.

Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Erythraeidae were also reported by Hamilton-Smith (1967), Springett (1976), Springett, 1979 (as Brythraeidae, sic), Lowry (1980), Heatwole et al. (1981), Greenslade (1985), Austin (1993), Walter (1995, 1999), Noble et al. (1996a, 1996b), Frost & Bailey (1997), Longstaff et al. (1999), Williams & Proctor (2002), Adolphson & Kinnear (2008), Callan et al. (2011), Proctor et al. (2011), Majer et al. (2013) and Eberhard et al. (2014).

Some authors have provisionally identified an Australian species as Balaustium murorum (Hermann) (e.g. Southcott 1976, 1978). However, it is now known that these records actually refer to B. medicagoense Meyer & Ryke (see Halliday 2001).

Beron (2008) listed Charletonia cardinalis (Pallas) as present in Australia. This record appears to be based on the erroneous record of its junior synonym C. singularis Oudemans from Australia, by Haitlinger (1987) (see Southcott 1991). In their catalogue of the world fauna, Mąkol & Wohltmann (2012) repeated this record, but attributed the species name cardinalis to Koch, 1837.

 

General References

Adolphson, H. & Kinnear, A. 2008. Acari (mite) assemblages under plantations of bluegum, Eucalyptus globulus, in southwestern Australia. Pedobiologia 51: 427–437

Austin, A.D. 1993. Nest associates of Clubiona robusta L. Koch (Araneae : Clubionidae) in Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 33: 441-446

Beron, P. 2008. Acarorum Catalogus. I. Acariformes: Calyptostomatoidea (Calyptostomatidae), Erythraeoidea (Smarididae, Erythraeidae). Sofia : Pensoft pp. 271.

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

Eberhard, S.M., Smith, G.B., Gibian, M.M., Smith, H.M. & Gray, M.R. 2014. Invertebrate cave fauna of Jenolan. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 136: 35-67.

Frost, W.E. & Bailey, P. 1997. Identifying Mites on Inland Australian Citrus. A Colour Guide for Growers, Packers and Quarantine Staff. South Australian Research and Development Institute, Adelaide. 8 pp.

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

Greenslade, P. 1985. Terrestrial invertebrates of the mound spring bores, creek beds and other habitats. pp. 64-77 in Greenslade, J., Joseph, L. & Reeves, A. (eds). South Australia's Mound Springs. Adelaide : Nature Conservation Society of South Australia.

Haitlinger, R. 1987. The genus Leptus Latreille, 1796 and Charletonia Oudemans, 1910 (Acari, Prostigmata, Erythraeidae) in Poland (larvae). Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne 57: 339–349

Halliday, R.B. 2001. Systematics and biology of the Australian species of Balaustium von Heyden (Acari: Erythraeidae). Australian Journal of Entomology 40: 326–330

Hamilton-Smith, E. 1967. The Arthropoda of Australian caves. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 6: 103-118

Heatwole, H., Done, T. & Cameron, E. 1981. Community Ecology of a Coral Cay: A study of One-Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The Hague : W. Junk 379 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.

Lowry, J.W.J. 1980. Ecological Relationships of Western Australian Cavernicoles. MSc. Thesis, School of Zoology, University of New South Wales. Vol. 1 367 pp., Vol. 2 204 pp. + appendices

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.

Mąkol, J. & Wohltmann, A. 2012. An annotated checklist of terrestrial Parasitengona (Actinotrichida: Prostigmata) of the world, excluding Trombiculidae and Walchiidae. Annales Zoologici, Warszawa 62: 359–562

Noble, J.C., Tongway, D.J., Roper, M.M. & Whitford, W.G. 1996b. Fire studies in mallee (Eucalyptus spp.) communities of western New South Wales: spatial and temporal fluxes in soil chemistry and soil biology following prescribed fire. Pacific Conservation Biology 2: 398-413

Noble, J.C., Whitford, W.G. & Kaliszewski, M. 1996a. Soil and litter microarthropod populations from two contrasting ecosystems in semi-arid eastern Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 32: 329-346

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

Southcott, R.V. 1976. Arachnidism and allied syndromes in the Australian region. Records of the Adelaide Children's Hospital 1: 97-186

Southcott, R.V. 1978. Australian Harmful Arachnids and Their Allies. Mitcham, South Australia : R. V. Southcott 36 pp.

Southcott, R.V. 1991. A further revision of Charletonia (Acarina : Erythraeidae) based on larvae, protonymphs and deutonymphs. Invertebrate Taxonomy 5: 61-131

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

Springett, J.A. 1979. The effects of a single hot summer fire on soil fauna and on litter decomposition in jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Ecology 4: 279-291

Walter, D.E. 1995. Dancing on the head of a pin: mites in the rainforest canopy. pp. 49-53 in M.S. Harvey (ed.). Australasian Spiders and their Relatives: Papers Honouring Barbara York Main. Records of the Western Australian Museum 52(Supplement)

Walter, D.E. 1999. Living on leaves: adaptations of Australian rainforest mites. pp. 73–78 in Needham, G.R., Mitchell, R., Horn, D.J. & Welbourn, W.C. Acarology IX. Volume 2. Symposia. Columbus, Ohio : Ohio Biological Survey.

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.

Welbourn, W.C. 1983. Potential use of Trombidioid and Erythraeoid mites as biological control agents of insect pests. pp. 103-140 in Hoy, M.A., Cunningham, G.L. & Knutson, L. (eds). Biological Control of Pests by Mites. Berkeley : Special Publication, University of California.

Williams, C.R. & Proctor, H.C. 2002. Parasitism of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) by larval mites (Acari: Parasitengona) in Adelaide, South Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology 41: 161–163

 

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