Family LEEUWENHOEKIIDAE Womersley, 1944

Museums

Regional Maps

• Leeuwenhoekiinae Womersley, H. 1944. Notes on and additions to the Trombiculinae and Leeuwenhoekiinae (Acarina) of Australia and New Guinea. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 68: 82-112.

Introduction

The family Leeuwenhoekiidae is known almost exclusively from the larvae, which are parasites of many different groups of vertebrate hosts. The few known adults are terrestrial predators (Walter et al. 2009). The Australian fauna includes 16 species in the genus Odontacarus. This fauna was catalogued by Domrow (1991), and very little new information has been added since then. Many of the species have been involved in complex misidentifications, and Domrow was unable to offer a reliable means of identifying species. The larvae of these species are parasites of birds, lizards, marsupials and domesticated mammals, and they are known as chiggers when they cause irritation to humans.

General References

Domrow, R. 1991. Acari Prostigmata (excluding Trombiculidae) parasitic on Australian vertebrates : an annotated checklist, keys and bibliography. Invertebrate Taxonomy 4: 1238-1376

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