Mesostigmata

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Taxonomy

updated 2025

Diagnostic characters

• Scale above 4-tined palp apotele
• Separate or deeply incised dorsal shields
• Anal shield free from ventral shield

Similar taxa

Parasitidae are superficially similar, but have ventrianal shields and lack characters such as the scale-like process above the palp apotelepalptarsal apotele:
(= palp apotele, palptarsal claw) the most distal segment of the palp; absent in Acariformes, claw-like in Opilioacarida, and a subdistal, tined structure in the Mesostigmata.
and moustache-likemoustache-like:
having the appearance of a well developed handlebar moustache, as in the internal malae of most species of Veigaia (Mesostigmata).  
internal malae.

Key to Genera of Veigaiidae

1. Tarsitarsus:
   (pl. tarsi) the subdistal leg segment between the tibia and the pretarsus (apotele).
   II–IV with 1–2 broad ambulacral pads.............................. 2
   Tarsi II–IV with 2 narrow, acuminateacuminate:
   coming to a point
   ambulacra.............................. Cyrthydrolaelaps Berlese

2. Ambulacral pad entireentire:
   a shield or sclerite with a continuous margin without incisions.
   .............................. Gamasolaelaps Berlese
   Ambulacra divided into 2 lobes.............................. Veigaia Oudemans

References

• Evans 1959Evans 1959:
  Evans GO. 1959. The genera Cyrthydrolaelaps Berlese and Gamasolaelaps Berlese (Acarina: Mesostigmata). Acarologia 1: 201-215.
• Farrier 1957Farrier 1957:
  Farrier MH. 1957. A revision of the Veigaiidae (Acarina). North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin 124: 1-103.
• Gilyarov and Bregatova 1977Gilyarov and Bregatova 1977:
  Gilyarov MS and Bregatova NG, eds. 1977. Handbook for the identification of soil-inhabiting mites, Mesostigmata. Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Petrograd.
• Halliday 1990cHalliday 1990c:
  Halliday RB. 1990c. The occurrence of Veigaia uncata Farrier (Acarina: Mesostigmata: Veigaiidae) in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Australian Entomological Magazine 17: 115-116.
• Hurlbutt 1983Hurlbutt 1983:
  Hurlbutt HW. 1983. The systematics and geographic distribution of east African Veigaiidae (Acarina: Mesostigmata). Acarologia 24 (2): 129-143.
• Hurlbutt 1984Hurlbutt 1984:
  Hurlbutt HW. 1984. A study of North American Veigaia (Acarina: Mesostigmata) with comparisons of habitats of unisexual and bisexual forms. Acarologia 25: 207-222.
• Ishikawa 1978Ishikawa 1978:
  Ishikawa K. 1978. The Japanese mites of the family Veigaiidae (Acari, Mesostigmata). 1. Description of two new species. Annotationes Zoologicae Japonenses 51 (2): 100-106.
• Till 1988Till 1988:
  Till WM. 1988. Additions to the British and Irish mites of the genus Veigaia (Acari: Veigaiidae) with a key to the species. Acarologia 29 (1): 3-12.
• Tseng 1994Tseng 1994:
  Tseng YH. 1994. A taxonomic study of free living Gamasinae mite family Veigaiidae Oudemans (Acari: Mesostigmata) from Taiwan. Chinese Journal of Entomology 14 (4): 501-528.
• Womersley 1956Womersley 1956:
  Womersley H. 1956. On some new Acarina-Mesostigmata from Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 42: 505-599.