Family MYOPSOCIDAE

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Introduction

Of the five genera and 157 species of described myopsocids, all five genera and 14 species are listed for Australia, including Christmas Island (Smithers 1995). One Australian species is very widespread and is found on paling fences and wooden garden furniture subject to weathering.

Myopsocidae are large, heavily patterned bark-dwellers. They have 13-segmented antennae and 3-segmented tarsi, the claws of which have a tooth; the pulvillus is broad. The wings are glabrous and have a dense, finely grained, complex pattern of dark and pale patches with the veins usually being marked in alternating dark and pale lengths. The areola postica is connected to the media for a length. The phallosome is closed anteriorly and posteriorly and the penial bulb has characteristic sclerotisations which frequently include a median longitudinal rod as well as other sclerites arranged symmetrically. The gonapophyses are complete, with the ventral valve fine and pointed, the dorsal valve broader but terminating in a slender, pointed process and the external valve broad, rounded and setose. The eggs are laid in large groups and encrusted with debris.

General References

Enderlein, G. 1903. Die Copeognathen des indo-australischen Faunengebietes. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici (Zoologica) 1: 179-344 12 figs pls iii-xiv

Mockford, E.L. 1982. Redescription of the type species of Myopsocus, M. unduosus (Hagen), and resulting nomenclatural changes in genera and species of Myopsocidae (Psocoptera). Psyche (Cambridge) Camb. 89(3–4): 211-220 6 figs

Smithers, C.N. 1964. The Myopsocidae of Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 33(7–8): 133-138 9 figs

Smithers, C.N. 1995. Psocoptera (Insecta) of Christmas Island. Invertebrate Taxonomy 9: 529-561

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