Family PTERYGOSOMATIDAE Oudemans, 1910

Museums

Regional Maps

• Pterygosomidae Oudemans, A.C. 1910. A short survey of the more important families of mites. Bulletin of Entomological Research 1: 105-119.

Introduction

The Pterygosomatidae is a family of about 120 species of large red parasitic mites, most of which attack lizards and tortoises, with a few species found on arthropod hosts (Walter et al. 2009). The lizard parasites are found under the scales or around the toes, ears, and axillae of their hosts, where they feed on the host's body fluids. Their feeding may be associated with some pathology and transmission of parasitic protozoa (summarised by Baker 1998; Walter & Shaw 2002). Domrow (1991) catalogued the four Australian species known to that time, all in the genus Geckobia, and all collected from geckoes. Walter & Shaw (2002, 2003) then recorded the introduced species Hirstiella diolii, which is a pest of captive reptiles (Baker 1998). Paredes-León et al. (2012) revised the classification and phylogeny of most of the major genera in the family. Barnett et al. (2018) recorded two invasive species on the introduced Asian house gecko.

General References

Baker, A.S. 1998. A new species of Hirstiella Berlese (Acari: Pterygosomatidae) from captive rhinoceros iguanas, Cyclura cornuta Bonnaterre. Systematic and Applied Acarology 3: 183-192

Barnett, L.K., Phillips, B.L., Heath, A.C.G., Coates, A. & Hoskin, C.J. 2018. The impact of parasites during range expansion of an invasive gecko. Parasitology 145: 1400-1409.

Domrow, R. 1991. Acari Prostigmata (excluding Trombiculidae) parasitic on Australian vertebrates : an annotated checklist, keys and bibliography. Invertebrate Taxonomy 4: 1238-1376

Paredes-León, R., Klompen, H. & Peréz, T. 2012. Systematic revision of the genera Geckobiella Hirst, 1917 and Hirstiella Berlese, 1920 (Acari: Prostigmata: Pterygosomatidae) with description of a new genus for American species parasites of geckoes formerly placed in Hirstiella. Zootaxa 3510: 1–40

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.

Walter, D.E. & Shaw, M. 2002. First record of the mite Hirstiella diolii Baker (Prostigmata: Pterygosomatidae) from Australia, with a review of mites found on Australian lizards. Australian Journal of Entomology 41: 30-34

Walter, D.E. & Shaw, M. 2003. The importance of being earnest: Exotic invasive mites (Arachnida: Acari) on Australian vertebrates. Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) Monogr. Ser 7: 25-30

History of changes