Family PODAPOLIPIDAE Ewing, 1922

Museums

Regional Maps

• Podapolipidae Ewing, H.E. 1922. Studies on the taxonomy and biology of the Tarsonemid mites, together with a note on the transformations of Acarapis (Tarsonemus) woodi Rennie (Acarina). The Canadian Entomologist 54: 104-113.

Introduction

The Podapolipidae are parasitic mites that occur on a wide variety of insect hosts, usually under the elytra of beetles, and inside the tracheae and genital capsules of other hosts. They are highly modified and morphologically reduced, and the adults often have only three or fewer pairs of legs. The family includes 30 genera and about 200 species (Walter et al. 2009). The Australian fauna includes nine genera and 38 species, but the small size and cryptic habits of these mites mean they are easily overlooked, and many more species are likely to exist. Unidentified species have been recorded from Australia a number of times. The genus Tetrapolipus Berlese, 1911 is known from Australia only on the basis of unidentified species, as reported by Husband (2008). Unidentified Podapolipidae were also reported by Lee & Southcott (1979).

According to Husband (pers. comm. 1996, 2011), all Australian records of Podapolipoides grassii are misidentifications of P. alatus Husband, 1990, including those listed in Castagnoli & Pegazzano (1985) and Hajiqanbar & Joharchi (2011).

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

Podapolipidae: Poadpolipoides grassii (Berlese, 1897) — Berlese, A. 1897. Sopra una nuova specie di Podapolipus. Rivista di Patologia Vegetale 5: 375–376

General References

Berlese, A. 1911. Acarorum species novae quindecim. Redia. Giornale di entomologia, Firenze 7: 429-435

Castagnoli, M. & Pegazzano, F. 1985. Catalogue of the Berlese Acaroteca. Firenze : Istituto Sperimentale per la Zoologia Agraria 490 pp.

Hajiqanbar, H. & Joharchi, O. 2011. World distribution and host range of Podapolipoides spp. (Acari: Heterostigmatina: Podapolipidae), with the description of a new species. Systematic Parasitology 78: 151–162

Husband, R.W. 1990. New species of Podapolipoides (Acari : Podapolipidae), ectoparasites of grasshoppers (Orthoptera : Acrididae) in Australia and New Zealand, with keys to world species. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 83: 371-393

Husband, R.W. 2008. The genus Tetrapolipus (Acari: Podapolipidae), parasites of tropical and semitropical Cerambycidae (Coleoptera), new distribution records and descriptions of four new species. International Journal of Acarology 34: 373–384

Lee, D.C. & Southcott, R.V. 1979. Spiders and other Arachnids of South Australia. In South Australian Yearbook, 1979. South Australian Government Printer : Adelaide. 15 pp.

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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