Family HYGROBATIDAE Koch, 1842

Museums

Regional Maps

• Hygrobatidae Koch, C.L. 1842. Übersicht des Arachnidensystems. Nürnberg : C.H. Zeh'sche.

Introduction

The family Hygrobatidae is a very large and diverse group of water mites that occurs in lakes, pools and rivers world-wide. The adults are predators, and some species have been shown to feed on the larvae of chironomid flies. Where they are known, the larvae are also parasites of Chironomidae (Walter et al. 2009). The Australian fauna is very rich, with 21 genera and over 100 species, and these genera show a high degreee of endemism. 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), but many more species in this family have been described after 1999. All the Australian species previously placed in Corticacarus are now placed in Procorticacarus, following Cramer & Cook (1998) and Harvey (1998). Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Hygrobatidae were also reported by Malipatil & Blyth (1982).

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

Hygrobatidae: Corticacarus Lundblad, 1936 — Lundblad, O. 1936. Neue Wassermilben aus Santa Catharina in Südbrasilien. Zoologischer Anzeiger 115: 29-51

General References

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

Cramer, C. & Cook, D.R. 1998. Description of a new subgenus and species of Recifella Viets and a new species of Corticacarus (Acari: Hydracarina) from Mexico. International Journal of Acarology 24: 131-136

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

Malipatil, M.B. & Blyth, J.D. 1982. A qualitative study of the macroinvertebrate fauna of the Thomson River and its major tributaries, Gippsland, Victoria. Reports of the National Museum of Victoria 1: 1-95

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.

History of changes