Pyemotoidea

Pyemotes tritici, copyright Eric Erbe.

Belongs within: Eleutherengonides.

The Pyemotoidea are a group of mites whose adult females, where their habits are known, are parasitoids on eggs and immature instars of insects. Females are physogastric, producing offspring at an advanced stage of development; species of Pyemotes and Acarophenacidae are fully sexually mature before becoming free-living (Walter et al. 2009).

Characters (from Walter et al. 2009): Female gnathosoma capsulate, circular, oval, or somewhat elongate, visible or hidden from above, with 1-2 pairs of dorsal setae; palpi closely appressed, often weakly delineated or reduced; movable cheliceral digits usually strongly styletlike, partially retractile; pharynx muscular, undivided, usually prominent. Male gnathosoma similarly developed, though sometimes less robust than in female. Prodorsal shield of females with pair of anterolateral stigmnta and associated tracheae, and with 2-3 pairs of setiform setae and with or without a pair of anterolateral bothridia with capitate sensilla, the latter represented by normal scapular setae in males. Opisthosoma of females with first dorsal plate C entire, not expanded anteriorly over prodorsum. Adults with coxisternal plates I-II united medially, forming prominent prosternal apodeme; female coxisternal plates III-IV separated from each other medially by soft cuticle that bears a separate triangular sternal plate with a pair of setae, or united medially and not forming a poststernal apodeme; male coxisternal plates III-IV fused medially, with or without a poststernal apodeme. Female genital opening small, covered by consolidated aggenital plate; genital setae absent, 1 pair of aggenital setae present or absent. Males with plates C and D consolidated, and with caudal or ventrocaudal genital capsule formed by consolidated plates H, PS, Ag, with short sclerotized aedeagus flanked by a pair of blunt or hooked setigenous processes and surrounded by adhesive flange or disc. Females with legs I similar to or thicker than legs II-IV and with single claw sometimes enlarged for grasping; legs II-IV similar inform, each usually with paired claws and stalked empodium; trochanter IV subtriangular, similar to trochanters I-III. On adults, coxisternal plates I-II together with 1-4 pairs of setae; trochanters I-IV with or without a seta; femur I with 3-4 setae; genu I with 3 or usually 4 setae; genu II with 2-3 setae. Male legs IV stout, with a single sessile claw in Pyemotidae; similar in form to legs III, with pretarsus and symmetrically paired claws (if claws present on legs III) in Acarophenacidae; and unmodifed, but legs III with large, spurlike tarsal process in Resinacarus. With only one active postembryonic instar (the adult); larva and single nymphal instars inactive calyptostatic apoderms, except a free-living larval instar apparently present in Resinacarus.

<==Pyemotoidea WL09
    |--Caraboacarus Krzcal 1959 L86 [Caraboacaridae WL09]
    |--Resinacaridae SPL16
    |    |--Resinacarus resinatus WL09
    |    `--Protoresinacarus brevipedis Khaustov & Poinar 2010 SPL16
    |--Pyemotes Amerling 1862 H98 (see below for synonymy)
    |    |--P. eccoptogasteri SB63
    |    |    |--P. e. eccoptogasteri SB63
    |    |    `--*P. e. pruni Amerling 1862 SB63
    |    |--P. alastoris (Froggatt 1894) [=Heteropus alastoris, Pediculoides alastoris] H98
    |    |--P. aradii [=Resinacarus aradii] WL09
    |    |--P. barbara WL09
    |    |--P. herfsi (Oudemans 1936) [=Pediculoides herfsi] H98
    |    |--P. parviscolyti WL09
    |    |--P. primus Khaustov & Perkovsky 2010 SPL16
    |    |--P. rhynchitinus (Debey 1849) (see below for synonymy) H98
    |    |--P. scolyti WL09
    |    |--P. tritici (LaGrèze-Fossat & Montagné 1851) [=Acarus tritici] H98
    |    `--P. ventricosus (Newport 1850) [=Heteropus ventricosus, Pediculoides ventricosus] H98
    `--Acarophenacidae [Acarophenacinae] WL09
         |--Adactylidium beeri WL09
         |--Aethiophenax ipidarius WL09
         |--Paradactylidium WL09
         |--Aegiptophenax WL09
         |--Protophenax kotejii Magowski 1994 SPL16
         |--Paracarophenax WL09
         |    |--P. dermestidarium (Rack 1959) R67
         |    |--P. dybasi WL09
         |    |--P. ipidarius L86
         |    |--P. scolyti R67
         |    `--P. undosus Mahunka 1975 M75
         `--Acarophenax Newstead & Duvall 1918 H98
              |--A. lukoschusi WL09
              |--A. mahunkai WP99
              |--A. rackae WL09
              `--A. tribolii Newstead & Duvall 1918 H98

Pyemotes Amerling 1862 H98 [incl. Heteropus Newport 1850 nec Beauvois 1805 nec Duméril & Bibron 1839 nec Laporte 1840 H98, Pediculoides Targioni-Tozzetti 1878 H98; Pediculoididae, Pyemotidae WL09]

Pyemotes rhynchitinus (Debey 1849) [=Dermaleichus rhynchitinus; incl. D. attelabrinus Debey 1849, Pyemotes attelabrinus] H98

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[H98] Halliday, R. B. 1998. Mites of Australia: A checklist and bibliography. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood.

[L86] Lindquist, E. E. 1986. The world genera of Tarsonemidae (Acari: Heterostigmata): a morphological, phylogenetic, and systematic revision, with a reclassification of family-group taxa in the Heterostigmata. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 118 (S136): 1–517.

[M75] Mahunka, S. 1975. Neue und auf Insekten lebende Milben aus Australien und Neu-Guinea (Acari: Acarida, Tarsonemida). Annales Historico-Naturales Musei Nationalis Hungarici 67: 317–325.

[R67] Rack, G. 1967. Untersuchungen über die Biologie von Dolichocybe Krantz, 1957 und Beschreibung von zwei neuen Arten (Acarina, Pyemotidae). Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut 64: 29–42.

[SB63] Schweizer, J., & C. Bader. 1963. Die Landmilben der Schweiz (Mittelland, Jura und Alpen): Trombidiformes Reuter, mit 217 Arten und Unterarten und 193 Originalzeichnungen. Denkschriften der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft [Mémoires de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles] 84 (2): i–vi, 209–378.

[SPL16] Sidorchuk, E. A., V. Perrichot & E. E. Lindquist. 2016. A new fossil mite from French Cretaceous amber (Acari: Heterostigmata: Nasutiacaroidea superfam. nov.), testing evolutionary concepts within the Eleutherengona (Acariformes). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 14 (4): 297–317.

[WL09] 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 3^rd ed. pp. 233–420. Texas Tech University Press.

[WP99] Walter, D. E., & H. C. Proctor. 1999. Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour. CABI Publishing: Wallingford (UK).

Last updated: 17 June 2022.