Family NEOTROMBIDIIDAE Feider, 1955

Museums

Regional Maps

• Neotrombidiinae Feider, Z. 1955. Fauna Republicii Populare Romîne. Arachnida, Volumul V, Fascicula I. Acarina Trombidoidea. Romîne : Academia Republicii Populare 186 pp.

Introduction

Adults and deutonymphs of mites in the family Neotrombidiidae are terrestrial predators that occur in soil, under bark, and in guano, and some of them have been found to feed on insect eggs (Walter et al. 2009). The larvae appear to be parasites of terrestrial insects, including beetles in the familes Cerambycidae and Cleridae (Singer 1971b), and at least one species is a hyperparasite on streblid flies that infest bats. The family was revised by Singer (1971a) and Lindquist & Vercammen-Grandjean (1971), and very little new information has been added since that time. The Australian fauna includes one genus and five species, most of which have been collected on bats and in guano in bat caves. Southcott (1954) described the complicated life cycle of one species and the resulting difficulties in correlating larval and stages in ohter species.

General References

Lindquist, E.E. & Vercammen-Grandjean, P.H. 1971. Revision of the chigger-like larvae of the genera Neotrombidium Leonardi and Monunguis Wharton, with a redefinition of the subfamily Neotrombidiinae Feider in the Trombidiidae (Acarina : Prostigmata). The Canadian Entomologist 103: 1557-1590

Singer, G. 1971a. Neotrombidium Leonardi (Acarina : Trombidioidea). Part I : Revision of the genus, with description of two new species. Acarologia 13: 119-142

Singer, G. 1971b. Neotrombidium Leonardi (Acarina: Trombidioidea), pt. 2. Biology of N. beeri and other species of the genus. Acarologia 13: 143–151

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