Family PARATYDEIDAE Baker, 1949

Museums

Regional Maps

• Paratydeidae Baker, E.W. 1949. Paratydeidae, a new family of mites (Acarina). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 51: 119-122.

Introduction

The Paratydeidae is a family of 15 species in three genera (Khaustov, 2017). They occur in soil and litter in relatively dry habitats such as grassland and forests. They are believed to be predatory, but their biology has not been studied. The Australian fauna includes only two identified species in the genus Tanytydeus (Seeman & Walter 2000). Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia in another genus, and unidentified Paratydeidae were also reported by Wood (1970, 1971), Stone & Simpson (1990), Osler et al. (2000), Kinnear & Tongway (2004), Beyer et al. (2011) and Proctor et al. (2011). They may be much more abundant and diverse than this meagre information would suggest. The family was thoroughly reviewed by Khaustov (2017).

General References

Beyer, S., Kinnear, A., Hutley, L.B., McGuiness, K. & Gibb, K. 2011. Assessing the relationship between fire and grazing on soil characteristics and mite communities in a semi-arid savanna of northern Australia. Pedobiologia 54: 195–200

Khaustov, A. 2017. Review of the Paratydeidae (Acari: Prostigmata), with description of three new species. Zootaxa 4303(2): 151-212.

Kinnear, A. & Tongway, D. 2004. Grazing impacts on soil mites of semi-arid chenopod shrublands in Western Australia. Journal of Arid Environments 56: 63–82

Osler, G.H.R., van Vliet, P.C.J., Gauci, C.S. & Abbott, L.K. 2000. Changes in free living soil nematode and micro-arthropod communities under a canola-wheat-lupin rotation in Western Australia. Australian Journal of Soil Research 38: 47–59

Proctor, H., Kanowski, J., Catterall, C.P., Wardell-Johnson, G. & Reis, T. 2011. Rainforest-restoration success as judged by assemblages of soil- and litter-dwelling mites (Arachnida: Acari). Zoosymposia 6: 234–254

Seeman, O.D. & Walter, D.E. 2000. A review of the Paratydeidae (Acari: Prostigmata) with descriptions of the first Australian representatives, Tanytydeus lamington sp. nov. and T. kakadu sp. nov. Acarologia 40: 393–400

Stone, C. & Simpson, J.A. 1990. Species associations in Ips grandicollis galleries in Pinus taeda. New Zealand Journal of Forestry Science 20: 75-96.

Wood, T.G. 1970. Micro-arthropods from soils of the arid zone in Southern Australia. Search 1: 75

Wood, T.G. 1971. The distribution and abundance of Folsomides deserticola (Collembola: Isotomidae) and other micro-arthropods in arid and semi-arid soils in southern Australia, with a note on nematode populations. Pedobiologia 11: 446-468

History of changes