Family PSOCIDAE

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Introduction

The Psocidae are the biggest family of bark-inhabiting Psocoptera with 49 genera and nearly 350 species worldwide. Eleven genera and 54 species have been recorded for Australia, including Christmas Island (Smithers 1995). The family includes the largest species of Psocoptera (South American thyrsophorines) and also the largest in Australia (Sigmatoneura species). They are very varied in morphological detail but the family can be fairly well defined on basic structure.

Their antennae are 13-segmented and the tarsi 2-segmented; in some species the claws are toothed, in others not so. The forewings are nearly always glabrous, their setae, if present, are usually sparse and small; the areola postica is joined to the media for a length by the fusion of CuA1 with the media; the radial sector and the media are usually fused for a length. The hind wing is nearly always glabrous, except for a few marginal setae between R2+3 and R4+5. In males of one subfamily (Amphigerontiinae), part of the abdomen anterior to the terminal structures is heavily sclerotised so that the hind end of the abdomen is highly modified. The paraprocts of the male usually have strongly developed clasper-like processes. The male hypandrium is ornamented with teeth, apophyses, hooks, spines, grooves, ridges and tubercles which take on a great variety of forms. These may be symmetrically arranged or not. The phallosome is usually a fairly simple structure closed before and behind and with a minimum of sclerotisation of the penial bulb. The gonapophyses are complete and well developed. The ventral valve is pointed. The dorsal valve is broader than the ventral valve, usually somewhat 'fleshy' in appearance and apically pointed or rounded. The external valve is large, well developed and setose. Within this general definition there is a wealth of different forms. Their eggs are laid single or in groups, covered with an encrustation and, only exceptionally, also with silk.

General References

Enderlein, G. 1903. Die Copeognathen des indo-australischen Faunengebietes. Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici (Zoologica) 1: 179-344 12 figs pls iii-xiv

Mockford, E.L. 1981. Systematics of New World genera of Cerastipsocini and species of Psococerastis Pearman (Psocoptera: Psocidae: Cerastipsocinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 107: 249-298 100 figs

Mockford, E.L. 1993. North American Psocoptera (Insecta). Fauna and Flora Handbook No. 10. Gainesville, Florida : Sandhill Crane Press pp. i-xviii 455.

Schmidt, E.R. & New, T.R. 2008. The Psocoptera (Insecta) of Tasmania, Australia. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 65: 71–152 [134] (key to genera recorded for Australia)

Smithers, C.N. 1980. The position of Sigmatoneura Enderlein (Psocoptera: Psocidae). Australian Entomological Magazine 6(5): 93

Smithers, C.N. 1985. Redefinition of Copostigma Enderlein (Psocoptera: Psocidae). Australian Entomological Magazine 12(3, 4): 61-62

Smithers, C.N. 1995. Psocoptera (Insecta) of Christmas Island. Invertebrate Taxonomy 9: 529-561

Smithers, C.N. & Thornton, I.W.B. 1990. Systematics and distribution of the Melanesian Psocidae (Psocoptera). Invertebrate Taxonomy 3(4): 431-468 74 figs

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