Family WETTINIDAE Cook, 1956

Museums

Regional Maps

• Wettini Cook, D.R. 1956. Preliminary studies on the Tiphysinae of the United States (Acarina: Pionidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 49: 263-274.

Introduction

The Wettinidae is a small family of five genera of water mites that occur in streams and lakes in Europe, North America, South Africa and Australia (Harvey 1998; Walter et al. 2009). The adults are active swimmers and are presumably predatory, and the larvae, where known, are parasites of Chironomidae. Most of the information on this family may be found in Cook et al. (2000) and Smith et al (2015). The Australian fauna includes one species in each of three endemic genera.

General References

Cook, D.R., Smith, I.M. & Harvey, M.S. 2000. Assessment of lateral compression of the idiosoma in adult water mites as a taxonomic character and reclassification of Frontipodopsis Walter, Wettina Piersig and some other basal Hygrobatoidea (Acari: Hydrachnidia). Invertebrate Taxonomy 14: 433–448

Harvey, M.S. 1998. The Australian Water Mites. A Guide to the Families and Genera. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 150 pp.

Smith, I.M., Cook, D.R. & Gerecke, R. 2015. Revision of the status of some genus-level water mite taxa in the families Pionidae Thor, 1900, Aturidae Thor, 1900, and Nudomideopsidae Smith, 1990. Zootaxa 3919: 111-156.

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.

History of changes