Holothyrida

Holothyrida
Sternothyrus braueri, a member of Holothyridae
Underside of male (left) and female (right) of Diplothyrus lecorrei (Neothyridae)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Superorder: Parasitiformes
Order: Holothyrida
Families

See text.

Diversity
10 genera, > 25 species

The Holothyrida are a small order of mites in the superorder Parasitiformes. No fossils are known. With body lengths of more than 2 mm (332 in) they are relatively large mites, with a heavily sclerotized body. It is divided into three families, Allothyridae, Holothyridae, and Neothyridae. In a 1998 experimental study, members of the family Allothyridae were found to ignore living animals but readily fed on the body fluids of dead arthropods, making them scavengers.[1]

The order has a distribution largely confined to former Gondwanan landmasses. They are the sister group to Ixodida (ticks).[2]

Systematics

[edit]

Allothyridae

[edit]

Allothyridae van der Hammen, 1972Australia, New Zealand

Holothyridae

[edit]

Holothyridae Thorell, 1882 Sri Lanka, Indian Ocean islands, New Guinea, New Caledonia

Neothyridae

[edit]

Neothyridae Lehtinen, 1981 Northern South America and the Caribbean

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ Walter, David Evans; Proctor, Heather C. (1998). "Feeding behaviour and phylogeny: observations on early derivative Acari". Experimental and Applied Acarology. 22 (1): 39–50. doi:10.1023/A:1006033407957.
  2. ^ Dobson, Susan J.; Barker, Stephen C. (1999). "Phylogeny of the Hard Ticks (Ixodidae) Inferred from 18S rRNA Indicates That the GenusAponommaIs Paraphyletic". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 11 (2): 288–295. doi:10.1006/mpev.1998.0565.

References

[edit]
  • Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog: Holothyrida
  • Bruce Halliday: Order Holothyrida
  • Lehtinen, Pekka T. (1995): Revision of the old world Holothyridae (Arachnida : Anactinotrichida : Holothyrina). Invertebrate Taxonomy 9(4): 767-826. doi:10.1071/IT9950767