Athienemanniidae

Stygohydracarus subterraneus, from here.

Belongs within: Acaromorpha.

The Athienemanniidae is a family of freshwater mites, including species found in interstitial and hyporheic habitats. Larvae of the Athienemanniinae are parasites of chironomid flies (Walter et al. 2009).

See also: The Mites of Springs.

Characters (from Walter et al. 2009): Dorsal and ventral shields present; palpu uncate with palptibia rotated approximately 90° relative to genu; capitulum with anterior end pointed in lateral view but wide in dorsal view and bearing a pair of long subterminal setae.

<==Athienemanniidae
    |  i. s.: Notomundamella G01
    `--Athienemanniinae S86
         |--Phreatohydracarus Tanasachi & Orghidan 1955 S86
         |    `--P. mosticus Tanasachi & Orghidan 1955 S86
         |--Stygohydracarus Viets 1932 S86
         |    |--S. subterraneus Walter 1947 S86
         |    `--S. troglobius Viets 1932 S86
         `--Chelomideopsis Romijn 1920 S86
              `--C. schermeri S86
                   |--C. s. schermeri S86
                   `--C. s. japonensis Imamura 1983 S86

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[G01] Growns, J. E. 2001. Aquatic mites as bioindicators, with an Australian example. In Acarology: Proceedings of the 10^th International Congress (R. B. Halliday, D. E. Walter, H. C. Proctor, R. A. Norton & M. J. Colloff, eds) pp. 136-142. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.

[S86] Schwoerbel, J. 1986. Acari: “Hydrachnellae”. In Stygofauna Mundi: A Faunistic, Distributional, and Ecological Synthesis of the World Fauna inhabiting Subterranean Waters (including the Marine Interstitial) (L. Botosaneanu, ed.) pp. 652-696. E. J. Brill / Dr. W. Backhuys: Leiden.

Walter, D. E., E. E. Lindquist, I. M. Smith, D. R. Cook & G. W. Krantz. 2009. Order Trombidiformes. In: Krantz, G. W., & D. E. Walter (eds) A Manual of Acarology 3rd ed. pp. 233-420. Texas Tech University Press.