Mesostigmata

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Taxonomy

updated 2025

Diagnostic characters

• Peritremes short, sinuous
• Sternal shieldsternal shield:
  a shield in the anterior intercoxal region of parasitiform mites that bears one or more pairs of sternal setae.
  horseshoe-shaped and bearing 5 pairs of setaeseta:
  (pl. setae, from L. = bristle) cuticular process composed of a hollow shaft (sometimes filled with a refractive material) produced from a membranous socket (the alveolus); the hair-like, spine-like, branched or variously expanded structures on the surfaces of the legs and body.  Most setae function as mechanoreceptors, but others (e.g., solenidia) are chemoreceptors or have unknown or ambiguous functions.
  
• Metapodal shieldsmetapodal shields:
  (also metapodal plates, metapodal platelets, metapodal sclerites) in Mesostigmata, a pair (sometimes fused) of small sclerites posteriad coxae IV in the ventral region that probably reflect muscle attachments.
  very large and covered with numerous small setaeseta:
  (pl. setae, from L. = bristle) cuticular process composed of a hollow shaft (sometimes filled with a refractive material) produced from a membranous socket (the alveolus); the hair-like, spine-like, branched or variously expanded structures on the surfaces of the legs and body.  Most setae function as mechanoreceptors, but others (e.g., solenidia) are chemoreceptors or have unknown or ambiguous functions.
  
• Opisthogenital shield with numerous small setaeseta:
  (pl. setae, from L. = bristle) cuticular process composed of a hollow shaft (sometimes filled with a refractive material) produced from a membranous socket (the alveolus); the hair-like, spine-like, branched or variously expanded structures on the surfaces of the legs and body.  Most setae function as mechanoreceptors, but others (e.g., solenidia) are chemoreceptors or have unknown or ambiguous functions.
  , expanded laterally and reaching metapodal and anal shields; bodybody:
  the idiosoma of mites.
  broader than long

More about Varroa on Bee Mite ID

Similar taxa

Euvarroa mites are longer than broad and have a ventrianal shield and small metapodal shields. Tropilaelaps are longer than wide and have narrow genital shields. Melittiphis have a well developed sternal keel.

Ecology and distribution

Parasites of honeybees.

References

• Casanueva 1993Casanueva 1993:
  Casanueva ME. 1993. Phylogenetic studies of the free-living arthropod associated Laelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata). Gayana Zoologica 57: 21–46.
• Delfinado and Baker 1974Delfinado and Baker 1974:
  Delfinado MD and Baker EW. 1974. Varroidae, a new family of mites on honey bees (Mesostigmata: Acarina). Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 64: 4-10.
• Delfinado-Baker and Houck 1989Delfinado-Baker and Houck 1989:
  Delfinado-Baker M and Houck MA. 1989. Geographic variation in Varroa jacobsoni (Acari, Varroidae): Application of multivariate morphometric techniques. Apidologie 20: 345-358.