Family LABIDOSTOMMATIDAE Oudemans, 1904

Museums

Regional Maps

• Labidostomidae Oudemans, A.C. 1904. Notes on Acari. Eleventh series. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 46: 93–134 + Plates 11–13 [original spelling].
• Nicoletiellidae Canestrini, G. 1891. Abbozzo del sistema acarologico. Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 7 2: 699-725.

Introduction

The correct name of this family is Labidostommatidae, for reasons explained by Steyskal (1970). The family includes about 50 species of large heavily sclerotised mites, which are often brightly coloured, especially green and yellow, and which have a highly ornamented cuticle. They occur in forest litter, lichens, and moss, where they prey on other arthropods (Walter et al. 2009). The Australian Labidostommatidae are poorly known, with only two named species, but many more species are known to exist in collections. Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Labidostommatidae were also reported by Hamilton-Smith (1967), Walter (1995, 1999) and Proctor et al. (2011).

General References

Hamilton-Smith, E. 1967. The Arthropoda of Australian caves. Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 6: 103-118

Proctor, H., Kanowski, J., Catterall, C.P., Wardell-Johnson, G. & Reis, T. 2011. Rainforest-restoration success as judged by assemblages of soil- and litter-dwelling mites (Arachnida: Acari). Zoosymposia 6: 234–254

Steyskal, G.C. 1970. Notes on the grammar of acarine nomenclature. Acarologia 12: 639-642

Walter, D.E. 1995. Dancing on the head of a pin: mites in the rainforest canopy. pp. 49-53 in M.S. Harvey (ed.). Australasian Spiders and their Relatives: Papers Honouring Barbara York Main. Records of the Western Australian Museum 52(Supplement)

Walter, D.E. 1999. Living on leaves: adaptations of Australian rainforest mites. pp. 73–78 in Needham, G.R., Mitchell, R., Horn, D.J. & Welbourn, W.C. Acarology IX. Volume 2. Symposia. Columbus, Ohio : Ohio Biological Survey.

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