Pachylaelapidae

Pachylaelaps sp., copyright Matthew Shepherd.

Belongs within: Eviphidoidea.

The Pachylaelapidae are a group of predatory mites found in soil habitats such as litter or animal nests; dispersal is often by means of phoresy in association with beetles. More distinctive members of the family include the genus Pseudolaelaps, females of which have free metasternal shield, two ventral setae on genu and tibia I, and a smooth, trispinate epistome (Lindquist et al. 2009).

Characters (from Lindquist et al. 2009): Tarsus II in female and male usually with one or two of the distal setae enlarged into stout spines (if lacking such spines, female with a genitiventral shield closely bordered by an anal shield or with peritrematic-exopodal shields extending posteriorly beyond coxae IV to fuse with metapodal plates); tibia III and genu and tibia IV each with one anterolateral seta.

<==Pachylaelapidae [Neoparasitidae, Pachylaelaptini]
    |--Pachyseius Berlese 1910 FH93
    |    |--*P. humeralis Berlese 1910 ET79
    |    `--P. adeliensis P94
    |--Sphaerolaelaps Berlese 1903 ET79
    |    `--*S. holothyroides (Leonardi 1896) [=Laelaps holothyroides] ET79
    |--Meliponapachys Turk 1948 FH93
    |    `--M. pallidus Turk 1948 FH93
    |--Neoparasitus Oudemans 1901 FH93 [incl. Brachylaelaps Berlese 1910 V25]
    |    |--N. oudemansi Oudemans 1901 [incl. Pachyseius molussus Berlese 1923, P. quartus Vitzthum 1924] V25
    |    `--‘*Brachylaelaps’ rotundus Berlese 1910 V25
    |--Megalolaelaps Berlese 1892 FH93
    |    |--M. enceladus (Berlese 1910) [=Hypoaspis enceladus; incl. Pachylaelaps ornata Keegan 1946] FH93
    |    `--M. spinirostris Berlese 1910 V25
    |--Olopachys LKW09
    |    |--O. skalri LKW09
    |    `--O. vysotskaja LKW09
    |--Zygoseius Berlese 1916 FH93
    |    |--Z. furciger Berlese 1916 FH93 [=Lasioseius (Zygoseius) furciger V25]
    |    `--Z. sarcinulus Halliday 1997 H98
    |--Pseudolaelaps Berlese 1916 LKW09, ET79 [Pseudolaelapinae]
    |    |--*P. doderoi (Berlese 1910) [=Laelaps (Hoplolaelaps) doderoi] ET79
    |    |--P. gamaselloides LKW09
    |    `--P. paulseni LKW09
    |--Onchodellus Berlese 1904 FH93
    |    |--*O. reticulatus (Berl. 1904) [=Pachylaelaps (*Onchodellus) reticulatus] ET79
    |    |--O. antillanus Turk 1948 FH93
    |    |--O. eurasius (Vitzthum 1925) [=Pachylaelaps (Onchodellus) eurasius] V25
    |    `--O. hispani (Berlese 1908) [=Pachylaelaps (Onchodellus) hispani] V25
    `--Pachylaelaps Berlese 1888 H98
         |--*P. pectinifer (Canestrini & Canestrini 1881) [=Gamasus pectinifer] ET79
         |--P. aegypticus LKW09
         |--P. australicus Womersley 1942 H98
         |--P. cluozzai Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. furcifer Oudemans 1903 FH93
         |--P. haeros Berlese 1888 V25 [incl. P. haeros var. mexicanus Stoll 1893 FH93]
         |--P. hamifer Trägårdh 1931 T31
         |--P. humusorum Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. jurassicus Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. laeuchli Schweizer 1922 S61
         |--P. latus Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. littoralis Halbert 1915 H66
         |--P. longipalpoides (Felt in Lintner 1896) (see below for synonymy) FH93
         |--P. longisetis ET79
         |--P. magnus S61 [=P. pectinifer var. magnus S22]
         |--P. penicilliger Berlese 1920 H98
         |--P. purcheri Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. regularis Berlese 1920 S61
         |--P. sculptus Berlese 1920 S61
         |--P. siculus [=P. strigifer var. siculus] S61
         |--P. singularis Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. stabelchodai Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. strigifer S61
         |--P. tablasoti Schweizer 1961 S61
         |--P. tesselatus Berlese 1920 S61
         `--P. trupchumi Schweizer 1961 S61

Pachylaelaps longipalpoides (Felt in Lintner 1896) [=Gamasus longipalpoides; incl. P. sellnicki Hirschmann & Kraus 1965] FH93

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[ET79] Evans, G. O., & W. M. Till. 1979. Mesostigmatic mites of Britain and Ireland (Chelicerata: Acari-Parasitiformes). An introduction to their external morphology and classification. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 35: 139–270.

[FH93] Farrier, M. H., & M. K. Hennessey. 1993. Soil-inhabiting and free-living Mesostigmata (Acari-Parasitiformes) from North America: an annotated checklist with bibliography and index. North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, North Carolina State University, Technical Bulletin 302: i–xvi, 1–408.

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

[H66] Hirschmann, W. 1966. Gangsystematik der Parasitiformes. Teil 15. Gänge von Litoralmilben und neue Litoralmilbenarten. Acarologie: Schriftenreihe für Vergleichende Milbenkunde 9: 25–44.

[LKW09] Lindquist, E. E., G. W. Krantz & D. E. Walter. 2009. Order Mesostigmata. In: Krantz, G. W., & D. E. Walter (eds) A Manual of Acarology 3^rd ed. pp. 124–232. Texas Tech University Press.

[P94] Pugh, P. J. A. 1994. Non-indigenous Acari of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 110: 207–217.

[S22] Schweizer, J. 1922. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der terrestrischen Milbenfauna der Schweiz. Verhandl. Naturf. Ges. Basel 33: 23–112, 4 pls.

[S61] Schweizer, J. 1961. Die Landmilben der Schweiz (Mittelland, Jura und Alpen): Parasitiformes Reuter, mit 246 Arten und Varietäten und 268 meist kombinierten Originalzeichnungen. Denkschriften der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft [Mémoires de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles] 84: i–vii, 1–207.

[T31] Trägårdh, I. 1931. Acarina from the Juan Fernandez Islands. Natural History of Juan Fernandez and Easter Islands 3 (4): 553–628.

[V25] Vitzthum, H. 1925. Fauna sumatrensis. (Beitrag no. 5). Acarinae. Supplementa Entomologica 11: 1–79.

Last updated: 19 April 2021.