Endeostigmata

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Taxonomy

Alycidae Canestrini & Fanzago 1877 (=Pachygnathidae Kramer 1877, Bimichaeliidae Womersley 1944Womersley 1944:
Womersley H. 1944. Australian Acarina, families Alycidae and Nanorchestidae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 68: 133–143.)

Diagnosis

Prodorsum with 2 pairs of filiform trichobothria (si, ve) and 4 pairs of setae (vi, se, in, exp); naso reduced to small nub, median eye absent; lateral eyes present. Rutella present; chelicerae chelate-dentate, each with 2 setae. Opisthosoma usually hypertrichous, but sometimes only sparsely so; 3 pairs of genital papillae.

Remarks

Species of Alycus are fairly common and only likely to be confused with species of Amphialycus, which have retained a median eye. Some species of Alycus feed on nematodes (Walter 1988cWalter 1988c:
Walter DE. 1988c. Predation and mycophagy by endeostigmatid mites (Acariformes: Prostigmata). Experimental and Applied Acarology 4: 159–166.), which usually do not form visible gut contents, but others have gut boluses with fungal material.

References

• Grandjean 1936bGrandjean 1936b:
  Grandjean F. 1936b. Le genre Pachygnathus Dugês (Alycus Koch) (Acariens), ire partie. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 8 (ser. 2): 398–405.
• Grandjean 1937aGrandjean 1937a:
  Grandjean F. 1937a. Le genre Pachygnathus Dugês (Alycus Koch) (Acariens). Deuxième partie. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 9 (ser. 2): 56–61, figs 1–3.
• Grandjean 1937bGrandjean 1937b:
  Grandjean F. 1937b. Le genre Pachygnathus Dugês (Alycus Koch) (Acariens). Troisième partie. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 9 (ser. 2): 134–138, figs 4–5.
• Grandjean 1937cGrandjean 1937c:
  Grandjean F. 1937c. Le genre Pachygnathus Dugês (Alycus Koch) (Acariens). Quatrième partie. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 9 (ser. 2): 199–205, figs 6–8.
• Grandjean 1937dGrandjean 1937d:
  Grandjean F. 1937d. Le genre Pachygnathus Dugês (Alycus Koch) (Acariens), cinquième et dernière partie. Bulletin du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle 9 (ser. 2): 262–269, fig 9.
• Halliday 1998Halliday 1998:
  Halliday B. 1998. Mites of Australia: A checklist and bibliography. Monographs on Invertebrate Taxonomy, Vol. 5. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.
• Hammen 1969aHammen 1969a:
  Hammen L van der. 1969a. Notes on the morphology of Alycus roseus C.L. Koch. Zoologische Mededelingen 43: 177-202.
• Judson 2000Judson 2000:
  Judson M. 2000. Nomenclatorial problems assoicated with the names Alycidae Canestrini & Fazago, 1877 and Pachygnathidae Kramer, 1877 (Acari). Memorie della Società Entomologica Italiana 78 (2): 533–540.
• Kethley 1982dKethley 1982d:
  Kethley JB. 1982d. Endeostigmata. pp. 118–120. In: Parker SP, ed. Synopsis and classification of living organisms, Vol. 2. McGraw-Hill, New York.
• Kethley 1990aKethley 1990a:
  Kethley JB. 1990a. Acarina: Prostigmata (Actinedida). pp. 667–756. In: Dindal DL, ed. Soil biology guide. John Wiley & Sons, Brisbane.
• Kethley 1990bKethley 1990b:
  Kethley JB. 1990b. The prelarva of Alycus roseus Koch (Bimichaeliidae: Acariformes: Acari). Canadian Journal of Zoology 68 (5): 1058–1061.
• Kethley 1991Kethley 1991:
  Kethley J. 1991. Probable tritonymphal sexual dimorphism in Alycus roseus (Bimichaeliidae: Acariformes: Acari). Journal of Entomological Science 26 (1): 130–135.
• Krivolutski et al. 1978Krivolutski et al. 1978:
  Krivolutski DA, Livshits IZ, Mitrofanov VI. 1978. Pachygnathidae. pp. 91–96. In: Gilyarov MS, ed. Identification key of soil-inhabiting mites, Trombidiformes. Nauka, Moscow.
• Thor and Willman 1941Thor and Willman 1941:
  Thor S, Willman C. 1941. Acarina - 71a. Eupodidae, Penthalodidae, Penthaleidae, Rhagidiidae, Pachygnathidae, Cunaxidae. Das Teirreich 71: 1–186.
• Walter 1988cWalter 1988c:
  Walter DE. 1988c. Predation and mycophagy by endeostigmatid mites (Acariformes: Prostigmata). Experimental and Applied Acarology 4: 159–166.
• Walter and Proctor 1999Walter and Proctor 1999:
  Walter DE, Proctor HC. 1999. Mites: Ecology, evolution and behaviour. University of NSW Press, Sydney and CABI, Wallingford. 494 pp.
• Womersley 1944Womersley 1944:
  Womersley H. 1944. Australian Acarina, families Alycidae and Nanorchestidae. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 68: 133–143.
• Zakhvatkin 1949Zakhvatkin 1949:
  Zakhvatkin AA. 1949. New representatives of apparently segmented mites (Acarina: Pachygnathidae). Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie 30: 291–297.