Family LINOTETRANIDAE Baker & Pritchard, 1953

Museums

Regional Maps

• Linotetranidae Baker, E.W. & Pritchard, A.E. 1953. The family categories of Tetranychoid mites, with a review of the new families Linotetranidae and Tuckerellidae. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 46: 243-258.

Introduction

The family Linotetranidae includes 12 species of plant parasites that occur in moss and soil, but most appear to be associated with the roots of grasses and sedges (Walter et al. 2009). Mites in this family are small and colourless and easily overlooked, and it is likely that many more species remain undiscovered. The most recent systematic studies of the family were by Smith Meyer & Ueckermann (1997) and Beard & Walter (2004). The Australian Linotetranidae are poorly known, with only two named species in one genus, and unidentified species in another genus. Unidentified Linotetranidae were also reported by Kinnear & Tongway (2004), Adolphson & Kinnear (2008) and Beyer et al. (2011).

General References

Adolphson, H. & Kinnear, A. 2008. Acari (mite) assemblages under plantations of bluegum, Eucalyptus globulus, in southwestern Australia. Pedobiologia 51: 427–437

Beard, J.J., Ochoa, R., Bauchan, G.R., Welbourn, W.C., Pooley, C. & Dowling, A.P.G. 2012. External mouthpart morphology in the Tenuipalpidae (Tetranychoidea): Raoiella a case study. Experimental and Applied Acarology 57: 227–255 (feeding biology)

Beard, J.J. & Walter, D.E. 2004. Cryptic false spider mites: a new genus, Austrolinus, and a review of the family Linotetranidae (Acari: Prostigmata: Tetranychoidea). Invertebrate Systematics 18: 593–606

Beyer, S., Kinnear, A., Hutley, L.B., McGuiness, K. & Gibb, K. 2011. Assessing the relationship between fire and grazing on soil characteristics and mite communities in a semi-arid savanna of northern Australia. Pedobiologia 54: 195–200

Kinnear, A. & Tongway, D. 2004. Grazing impacts on soil mites of semi-arid chenopod shrublands in Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 56: 63–82

Smith Meyer, M.K.P. & Ueckemann, E.A. 1997. A review of some species of the families Allochaetophoridae, Linotetranidae and Tuckerellidae (Acari: Tetranychoidea). International Journal of Acarology 23: 67–92

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