Family EPIDERMOPTIDAE Trouessart, 1892

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Regional Maps

• Epidermoptidae Trouessart, E.L. 1892. Considérations générales sur la classification des acariens, suivies d'un essai de classification nouvelle. Revue des Sciences Naturelles de l'Ouest 2: 20-54.
• Knemidocoptinae Dubinin, V.B. 1953. Feather mites (Analgesoidea). Part II. Families Epidermoptidae and Freyanidae. Fauna of the USSR 6(6): 1-412 (USSR Academy of Sciences, Leningrad) [original spelling].

Introduction

The family Epidermoptidae now includes the genera that were previously placed in the Knemidokoptidae, for example by Domrow (1992). These two families are here combined, following OConnor (2009). The expanded family now includes 12 genera of ectoparasites that burrow in the skin of birds and mammals. This way of life has been accompanied by morphological adaptations including a small rounded body shape, short legs, and claw-like projections on the fore tarsi. The presence of these parasites sometimes causes significant pathology in the host, such as scaly-leg disease of birds caused by several species of Knemidokoptes. A few species have developed hyperparasitic associations with hippoboscid flies that attack the same hosts. The Australian fauna includes ten species in five genera. The species that parasitise domesticated birds are cosmopolitan, and have almost certainly been transported by human activities.

General References

Domrow, R. 1992. Acari Astigmata (excluding feather mites) parasitic on Australian vertebrates: an annotated checklist, keys and bibliography. Invertebrate Taxonomy 6: 1459-1606

OConnor, B.M. 2009. Cohort Astigmatina. pp. 565–657 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

History of changes