Family NENTERIIDAE Hirschmann, 1979 (nomen nudum)

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Family NENTERIIDAE Hirschmann, 1979 (nomen nudum)

Nenteriidae Hirschmann, W. 1979. Stadiensystematik der Parasitiformes. Teil 1. Stadienfamilien und Stadiengattungen der Atrichopygidiina, erstellt im Vergleich zum Gangsystem Hirschmann 1979. Acarologie. Schriftenreihe für Vergleichende Milbenkunde 26: 57-70 [nomen nudum].

Introduction

Hirschmann (1979) used the name Nenteriidae for this family, but did not provide a description or any means of defining the family. Hirschmann & Wisniewski (1985) revised the family, in a series of 22 papers published simultaneously. In those papers, the genus Nenteria was sometimes placed in the family Nenteriidae, and sometimes in the subfamily Uropodinae and tribe Trichouropodini. None of those papers includes a description or diagnosis of the family Nenteriidae. The family name Nenteriidae was used by Farrier & Hennessey (1993), Halliday (1998), and Moraza & Peña (2005), but none of those authors described or diagnosed the family. The name Nenteriidae is therefore technically unavailable under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. However, no other name is available for this family, and the family concept is taxonomically useful, so it is provisionally used here until this problem can be corrected (Halliday, 2016).

The family now includes about 120 species. Hirschmann & Wisniewski (1993) placed almost all the species in the single genus Nenteria. They arranged the species in a series of species groups, which were previously treated as genera or subgenera. The family is cosmopolitan, and its species have been found in soil, litter, moss, compost, guano, under bark, and in the nests of mammals, birds, and insects. The deutonymphs are often phoretic on insects, especially beetles. Only a single species is known from Australia, described from north Queensland, but more species are likely to be found during more intensive collecting.