Family SCUTACARIDAE Oudemans, 1916

Museums

Regional Maps

• Scutacaridae Oudemans, A.C. 1916. Acarologische aanteekeningen. LX. Entomologische Berichten (Amsterdam) 4(91): 308-316.

Introduction

The Scutacaridae is a distinctive family of mites that are easily recognised by the rounded dome-shaped carapace that covers the dorsal surface of the body. They are found in soil, leaf litter, compost, and the nests of mammals, and the adult females are usually phoretic on insects. They appear to be fungivorous, but only a few species have been studied in detail. About 750 species are known (Walter et al. 2009). The Australian fauna includes 26 species, most of which were described in a single publication (Mahunka 1967). Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times as listed for each genus, and unidentified Scutacaridae were also reported by Walter (1995, 1999) and Proctor et al. (2011).

General References

Mahunka, S. 1967. A survey of the scutacarid (Acari : Tarsonemini) fauna of Australia. Australian Journal of Zoology 15: 1299-1323

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

Walter, D.E. 1995. Dancing on the head of a pin: mites in the rainforest canopy. pp. 49-53 in M.S. Harvey (ed.). Australasian Spiders and their Relatives: Papers Honouring Barbara York Main. Records of the Western Australian Museum 52(Supplement)

Walter, D.E. 1999. Living on leaves: adaptations of Australian rainforest mites. pp. 73–78 in Needham, G.R., Mitchell, R., Horn, D.J. & Welbourn, W.C. Acarology IX. Volume 2. Symposia. Columbus, Ohio : Ohio Biological Survey.

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.

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