Family HYDRODROMIDAE Viets, 1936

Museums

Regional Maps

• Hydrodromidae Viets, K. 1936. Wassermilben oder Hydracarina (Hydrachnellae und Halacaridae). In Dahl, F. (ed.). Die Tierwelt Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Meeresteile 31: 1-288.

Introduction

Adult mites in the family Hydrodromidae can be found swimming in streams, ponds and lakes world-wide (Walter et al. 2009). The adults of the one well-studied species, Hydrodroma despiciens, feed on the eggs of chironomid flies, while its larvae are parasites of flies in the Chironomidae and other families. Cook (1986) drew attention to the difficulty in separating species of Hydrodroma, which was thought to be caused either by intra-specific variation or the existence of multiple closely-related species. When Harvey (1998) reviewed the Australian fauna, only two species were known, but since then six more species have been described (Pesic & Smit 2007a, 2007b, 2011).

General References

Cook, D.R. 1986. Water mites from Australia. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 40: 1-568

Harvey, M.S. 1998. The Australian Water Mites. A Guide to the Families and Genera. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 150 pp.

Pesic, V. & Smit, H. 2007a. Water mite species of the genus Hydrodroma Koch (Acari: Hydrachnidia, Hydrodromidae) from Australasia. Part I. Zootaxa 1389: 31–44

Pesic, V. & Smit, H. 2007b. Water mite species of the genus Hydrodroma Koch (Acari: Hydrachnidia, Hydrodromidae) from Australia. Part II. Zootaxa 1509: 41–50

Pešić, V. & Smit, H. 2011. A new species of the genus Hydrodroma Koch, 1837 (Acari, Hydrachnidia, Hydrodromidae), with a key to the hitherto known six species of the genus in Australia. ZooKeys 143: 13–22

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.

History of changes