Family PHENOPELOPIDAE Petrunkevitch, 1955

Museums

Regional Maps

• Phenopelopidae Petrunkevitch, A. 1955. Arachnida. pp. 42-162 in Moore, R.C. (ed.). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Lawrence : University of Kansas Press Vol. P.

Introduction

The family Phenopelopidae includes five genera and 105 species world-wide (Schatz et al. 2011). The family has sometimes been referred to as Pelopidae. For a discussion of the complex nomenclatural history of this family and the included genera, see Marshall et al. (1987). These mites appear to be fungal feeders, but at least one species is capable of feeding on living plant material (Norton & Behan-Pelletier 2009). The Australian Phenopelopidae are poorly known, with only two recorded genera, both of which are known only from unidentified species. Nesopelops has been collected a number of times in grass and woodland (Colloff & Halliday 1998). The record of a species of Eupelops phoretic on a trogid beetle in Australia (Philips 2009) has not been confirmed.

General References

Colloff, M.J. & Halliday, R.B. 1998. Oribatid Mites: A Catalogue of the Australian Genera and Species. Melbourne : CSIRO Publications.

Marshall, V.G., Reeves, R.M. & Norton, R.A. 1987. Catalogue of the Oribatida (Acari) of continental United States and Canada. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 139: 1-418

Norton, R.A. & Behan-Pelletier, V.M. 2009. Suborder Oribatida. pp. 430–564 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

Philips, J.R. 2009. The mite (Acarina) fauna of trogid beetles (Coleoptera: Trogidae). International Journal of Acarology 35: 1-17

Schatz, H., Behan-Pelletier, V.M., OConnor, B.M. & Norton, R.A. 2011. Suborder Oribatida van der Hammen, 1968. pp. 141–148 in Zhang, Z.-Q. Animal Biodiversity: An Outline of Higher-level Classification and Survey of Taxonomic Richness. Auckland : Magnolia Press.

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