Cohort Nothrina (Supercohort Desmonomatides (Desmonomata))

Superorder Acariformes

   Order Sarcoptiformes

      Suborder Oribatida

          Supercohort Desmonomatides (= Desmonomata, Holosomatina, Nothronota)

              Cohort: Nothrina (Crotonioidea, Malaconothroidea, Nanhermannioidea,

                                                Hermannioidea);

             [Also Cohorts Brachypylina (=Euoribatida) (24 superfamilies); Astigmatina (=Astigmata, Acaridida)]

 

Common names: nothroid oribatid mites

 

Probability of Encounter: low

 

Quarantine importance: Members of the Cohort Nothrina are not of great quarantine importance.  Some species are aquatic or subaquatic and may be found in aquaria, sphagnum, and similar products.  Others are common in wet forest litter, mosses, and in lichens and other epiphytes on trees and shrubs.

 

Diagnosis.  Black, brown, reddish, beige, yellowish to pale holoid oribatid mites with the capitulum withdrawn within a camerostome.  Ventral plate sometimes incised (Nanhermanniidae); discrete aggenital and adanal plates sometimes present; 3 pairs of genital papillae.  Palps with 2-5 free segments.  Opisthosomal glands present.  Prodorsal trichobothria lost in some aquatic forms.

 

Similar mites.  see Mixonomatides.

 

Ecology & Distribution.  Nothrids, nanhermanniids, and some camisiids (Platynothrus) are characteristic of fairly mesic to wet forest litter, mosses, and bogs.  Other camisiids (Camisia) and crotonioids are more characteristic of dry litter, bark and other arboreal habitats.  Tryhypochthoniids can be found in dry (Tryhypochthonius, Archegozetes) or wet litter, and in fully aquatic habitats (Mucronothrus).  Malaconothrids tend to be found in wet litter, moss and streams.  Except in the Crotoniidae and Hermanniidae, most desmonomates are all female parthenogens.  Hermanniids should probably be considered early derivative Brachypylina.

 

References

Colloff M.  1993.  A taxonomic revision of the oribatid mite genus Camisia (Acari: Oribatida).  Journal of Natural History 27: 1325-1408.

Colloff M & Halliday B.  1998.  Oribatid Mites.  A Catalogue of Australian Genera and Species.  Monograph on Invertebrate Taxonomy Vol. 6.  CSIRO Publications: Melbourne.

Gilyarov MS & Krivolutsky DA (eds)  1975.  Handbook for the Identification of Soil-inhabiting Mites, Sarcoptiformes.  Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences: Petrograd [In Russian]

Hunt G, Colloff MJ, Dallwitz M, Kelly J. & Walter DE.  1998.  An Interactive Key to the Oribatid Mites of Australia.  CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria.  (Compact Disk and User Guide).

Lee DC.  1982.  Sarcoptiformes (Acari) of South Australian soils. 3. Arthronotina (Cryptostigmata). Records of the South Australian Museum 18: 327-359.

Luxton M.  1985.  Cryptostigmata (Arachnida: Acari) – a concise review. Fauna of New Zealand 7: 1-106.

Luxton M.  1987.  New mites of the family Crotoniidae (Acari : Cryptostigmata) from northern Queensland. Acarologia 28: 381-388.