Family EUPHTHIRACARIDAE Jacot, 1930

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• Euphthiracarini Jacot, A.P. 1930. Oribatid mites of the subfamily Phthiracarinae of the northeastern United States. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 39: 209-261 pls 33-42.

Introduction

The family Euphthiracaridae is cosmopolitan, and includes five or six genera and about 150 species world-wide (Schatz et al. 2011). Different authors have used different concepts of the genera in this family, but the classification used here is based on that of Subias (2011). These mites feed on decaying plant material, and their immature stages are found in burrows in dead wood (Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). The Australian fauna includes two genera and 18 species, most of which were revised by Niedbała (2000, 2012). Unidentified species have been reported from Australia in both genera, and unidentified Euphthiracaridae were reported by Callan et al. (2011) and Majer et al. (2013).

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

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.

Niedbała, W. 2000. The Ptyctimous Mites Fauna of the Oriental and Australian Regions and their Centres of Origin (Acari: Oribatida). Wrocław : Polskie Towarzystwo Taksonomiczne pp. 493.

Niedbała, W. 2012. An updated study of ptyctimous mite fauna (Acari: Oribatida) of the Australasian Region with a description of thirteen new species. Acarologia 52: 183–228

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.

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