Family MESOPLOPHORIDAE Ewing, 1917

Museums

Regional Maps

• Mesoplophoridae Ewing, H.E. 1917. A synopsis of the genera of beetle mites with special reference to the North American fauna. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 10: 117-132.

Introduction

The family Mesoplophoridae includes three genera and 40 species world-wide (Schatz et al. 2011). The family is cosmopolitan, and its species have been collected in soil, litter, and decaying wood (Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). The Australian fauna includes Apoplophora pantotrema, which is common and widespread in the Oriental and Australasian Regions, and which has attracted a long series of synonyms (Subias 2011), as well as several new species described by Niedbała (2012). Unidentified species of Apoplophora have also been recorded several times (reviewed by Colloff & Halliday 1998), and unidentified Mesoplophoridae were also reported by Seeman & Nahrung (2000).

General References

Niedbała, W. 2012. An updated study of ptyctimous mite fauna (Acari: Oribatida) of the Australasian Region with a description of thirteen new species. Acarologia 52: 183–228

Norton, R.A. & Behan-Pelletier, V.M. 2009. Suborder Oribatida. pp. 430–564 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

Schatz, H., Behan-Pelletier, V.M., OConnor, B.M. & Norton, R.A. 2011. Suborder Oribatida van der Hammen, 1968. pp. 141–148 in Zhang, Z.-Q. Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness. Auckland : Magnolia Press.

Seeman, O.D. & Nahrung, H.F. 2000. Mites as fungal vectors? The ectoparasitic fungi of mites and their arthropod associates in Queensland. Australasian Mycologist 19: 3-9

Subias, L.S February 2011. Listado sistemático, sinonímico y biogeográfico de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes: Oribatida) del mundo (excepto fósiles). Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain. http://www.ucm.es/info/zoo/Artropodos/Catalogo.pdf [date of access 1 October 2011]

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