It is uncertain whether Parasitiformes and Acariformes are closely related, and in many analyses they are recovered more closely related to other arachnids.[3][12] Amongst the best known members of the group are the
ticks, though the
Mesostigmata is by far the most diverse group with over 8,000 described species, including economically important species such as the
varroa mite.
Description
Taxonomy
Holothyrida - small group of scavenging mites native to former
Gondwana landmasses
Mesostigmata – a large order of predatory and parasitic mites
Opilioacarida – a small group of large, long-legged segmented mites.
Many species are parasitic (most famous of which are
ticks), but not all. For example, about half of the 10,000 known species in the suborder
Mesostigmata are
predatory and
cryptozoan, living in soil-litter, rotting wood, dung, carrion, nests or house dust. A few species have switched to grazing on
fungi or ingesting
spores or
pollen. Phylogenetic relationships of the groups, after Klompen, 2010:[13]
The oldest known fossils of Parasitiformes, representing three out of the four modern groups, Ixodida, Mesostigmata, and Opilioacarida, are known from Cretaceous aged
amber, dating to around 100 million years ago.[14][15][16] They are suspected to have diversified substantially earlier. The genetic divergence between the groups is less than that of
Acariform mites, suggesting a younger origin, likely dating to the late
Paleozoic.[17]
^Evolution of ticks. Klompen, J.S.; Black, W.C.; Keirans, J.E.; Oliver, J.H. Annual Review of Entomology, 1996, Vol.41, pp.141-61
^John F Anderson, The natural history of ticks, Medical Clinics of North America, Volume 86, Issue 2, March 2002, Pages 205-218
^Hans Klompen, Mariam Lekveishvili, William C. Black IV, Phylogeny of parasitiform mites (Acari) based on rRNA, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 43, Issue 3, June 2007, Pages 936-951
^Lindquist, E.E.; Walter, D.E.; Krantz, G.W. (2009) A manual of Acarology, 3 Edit. Lubbock: Texas Tech, pp. 97-103
^Schweizer, J. (1949). Die Landmilben des schweizerischen Nationalparks: Teil 1. Liestal: Lüdin.