Family Erythraeidae Robineau-Desvoidy, 1828

Leptus ariel (Erythraeidae), larva, dorsal view (modified from Southcott, 1989) title=

Fig. 1. Leptus ariel (Erythraeidae), larva, dorsal view (modified from Southcott, 1989). Click to enlarge

Bee Mites : Acari : Acariformes : Trombidiformes

Family Erythraeidae Robineau-Desvoidy, 1828

Type genus Erythraeus Latreille 1806

Material (show database records).

General Description. This family includes 55 genera and 771 species (Vercammen-Grandjean, 1973; Zhang et. al., 2011). Larvae of many these genera are ectoparasites of insects, millipedes, or arachnids, whereas postlarval instars are predatory. One genus, Leptus, occurs on bees. In addition, an unidentified genus was recorded from the Philippines from Apis cerana (Malabanan and Corpuz-Raros, 1998).

Distribution (show map).

Genera associated with bees

Erythraeidae gen. sp. Malabanan and Corpuz-Raros, 1998
Leptus Latreille, 1796

References

Malabanan, J. M. & L. A. Corpuz-Raros. 1998. Mites associated with Apis mellifera Linnaeus and Apis cerana Fabricius in the southern Tagalog region, Philippines. Philippine Entomologist.12: 123-135.

Vercammen-Grandjean, P. H. 1973. Sur les statuts de la famille des Trombidiidae Leach, 1815 (Acarina: Prostigmata). Acarologia.15: 102-114.

Zhang, Z.-Q., Q.-H. Fan, V. Pesic, H. Smit, A. V. Bochkov, A. A. Khaustov, A. Baker, A. Wohltmann, T. Wen, J. W. Amrine, P. Beron, J. Lin, G. Gabrys & R. Husband. 2011. Order Trombidiformes Reuter, 1909 Zootaxa.3148: 129-138.

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Leptus