Family TROGIIDAE

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Introduction

The family Trogiidae comprises five genera and 40 species, of which three genera and ten species are recorded in the Australian fauna. Most of the species found in Australia occur in domestic situations worldwide but some have also been taken from vegetation and litter in the field. They are sometimes very common. Some domestic species are known to produce sound by banging the abdomen against the substratum. When this is free to vibrate the sound may be clearly audible, being one of those referred to traditionally as the 'death watch'.

Trogiids have antennae with more than 20 segments, not secondarily 'annulated'. They lack ocelli. The wings are rudimentary or absent and many have a nymph-like appearance. The labial palps are 2-segmented. The maxillary palps have a sensillum in the inner side of the second segment. The tarsi are 3-segmented, the claws lack a tooth and the pulvillus is fine. The paraprocts lack trichobothria but do have a large posterior spine. The female gonapophyses and male phallosome are similar to those of the Lepidopsocidae. The eggs are laid singly, are sculptured and are not covered.

Smithers (1995) recorded specimens in the family from Christmas Island, Indian Ocean.

General References

Lienhard, C. 1984. Études préliminaire pour une faune des Psocoptères de la région ouest-paléarctique—I. Le genre Cerobasis Kolbe, 1882. (Psocoptera: Trogiidae). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 91(3): 747-764 29 figs

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

Smithers, C.N. 1965. The Trogiidae (Psocoptera) of Australia. Journal of the Entomological Society of Queensland 4: 79

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

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