Family HYDRYPHANTIDAE Piersig, 1896

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• Hydryphantinae Piersig, R. 1896. Beiträge zur Kenntnis der in Sachsen einheimischen Hydrachniden-Formen. Sitzungsberichte der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Leipzig 22-23: 33-103.

Introduction

The Hydryphantidae is a large family of aquatic mites that are often found crawling on submerged vegetation in ponds and pools (Walter et al. 2009). The deutonymphs and adults of some species prey on the eggs of aquatic insects, and the larvae are parasites of aquatic bugs, flies, and other groups of insects. The family has sometimes been divided into several smaller families, but the concept used here is that of Harvey (1998). The largest single work on Australian water mites is by Cook (1986), the world fauna was catalogued by Viets (1987), and the Australian fauna was reviewed by Harvey (1998). The Australian fauna of Hydryphantidae includes 11 genera and 26 species. Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Hydryphantidae were also reported by Fulton (1983) and Williams & Proctor (2002).

General References

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

Fulton, W. 1983. Macrobenthic fauna of Great Lake, Arthurs Lake and Lake Sorell, Tasmania. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 34: 775-785 [Date published 15 Nov. 1983]

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

Viets, K.O. 1987. Die Milben des Süsswassers (Hydrachnellae und Halacaridae (Part.), Acari). 2. Katalog. Berlin : Paul Parey 1012 pp.

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.

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

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