Family PHYTOPTIDAE Murray, 1877

Museums

Regional Maps

• Phytoptidae Murray, A. 1877. Economic Entomology. Aptera. South Kensington Museum Science Handbook no. 1. London : Chapman and Hall 433 pp.
• Sierraphytoptinae Keifer, H.H. 1944. Eriophyid studies. XIV. Bulletin of the California Department of Agriculture 33: 18-38.
• Nalepellinae Roivainen, H. 1953. Subfamilies of European eriophyid mites. Annales Entomologici Fennici 19: 83-87.

Introduction

The family Phytoptidae includes 21 genera and 145 species of plant parasites (Walter et al. 2009). A few species are pests on crop plants. The world fauna was catalogued by Amrine & Stasny (1994), and their classification, biology, and host-plant relationships were reviewed by Lindquist et al (1996). The Australian fauna has never been systematically studied, and only two species are known, both on introduced plants. Phytoptus avellanae causes the big bud deformity of hazelnuts, and P. hedericola causes curling of the leaves of English ivy. It is very likely that many more Australian species in this family await discovery.

General References

Amrine, J.W. & Stasny, T.A. 1994. Catalog of the Eriophyoidea (Acarina: Prostigmata) of the World. Michigan : Indira Publishing House 798 pp.

Lindquist, E.E., Sabelis, M.W. & Bruin, J. (eds) 1996. Eriophyoid mites. Their Biology, Natural Enemies and Control. Amsterdam : Elsevier 790 pp.

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