Hydrachnidia

Hydrachnidia
Temporal range: Wordian–Recent
Water mite 1.1 mm long from a freshwater pond
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Arachnida
Subclass:
Acari
Order:
Trombidiformes
Suborder:
Prostigmata
(unranked):
Parasitengona
(unranked):
Hydrachnidia
Superfamilies[1]
Synonyms
  • Hydracarina
  • Hydrachnellae
Water mites in a mat of floating algae
Two water mites feeding on the larva of a chironomid[2]

Hydrachnidia, also known as "water mites", Hydrachnidiae, Hydracarina or Hydrachnellae, are among the most abundant and diverse groups of benthic arthropods, composed of 6,000 described species from 57 families.[3] As water mites of Africa, Asia, and South America have not been well-studied, the numbers are likely to be far greater. Other taxa of parasitengone mites include species with semi-aquatic habits, but only the Hydracarina are properly subaquatic. Water mites follow the general Parasitengona life cycle: active larva, inactive (calyptostasic) protonymph, active deutonymph, inactive tritonymph and active adult. Usually, larvae are parasites, while deutonymphs and adults are predators.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference di-sabatino was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Vasquez, AA; Mohiddin, O; Bonnici, BL; Gurdziel, K; Ram, JL (2021). "Moleculardietstudiesof watermitesrevealprey biodiversity". PLOS ONE. 16 (7): e0254598. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0254598. PMC 8321515. PMID 34324525.
  3. ^ a b Proctor, Heather C.; Smith, Ian M.; Cook, David R.; Smith, Bruce P. (2015), "Subphylum Chelicerata, Class Arachnida", Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates, Elsevier, pp. 599–660, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-385026-3.00025-5, ISBN 9780123850263