The Prostigmata is a suborder of

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

s belonging to the order

Trombidiformes The Trombidiformes are a large, diverse order of mites. Taxonomy In 1998, Trombidiformes was divided into the Sphaerolichida and the Prostigmata. The group has few synapomorphies by which it can be defined, unlike the other major group of aca ...

, which contains the "sucking" members of the "true mites" (

Acariformes The Acariformes, also known as the Actinotrichida, are the most diverse of the two superorders of mites. Over 32,000 described species are found in 351 families, with an estimated total of 440,000 to 929,000 species, including undescribed species ...

). Many

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are notorious pests on

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

s. Well-known examples of prostigmatan plant

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

s are species of the gall mites (

Eriophyidae Eriophyidae is a family of more than 200 genera of mites, which live as plant parasites, commonly causing galls or other damage to the plant tissues and hence known as gall mites. About 3,600 species have been described, but this is probably l ...

, e.g. the redberry mite '' Acalitus essigi''),

Tarsonemidae Tarsonemidae is a family of mites, also called thread-footed mites or white mites. Only a limited number of tarsonemid genera (''Steneotarsonemus'', '' Polyphagotarsonemus'', '' Phytonemus'', '' Floridotarsonemus'' and ''Tarsonemus'') are known ...

(e.g. the cyclamen mite, ''

Steneotarsonemus pallidus The cyclamen mite (''Phytonemus pallidus'') is a tiny mite often found as a pest on African violets and cyclamen ''Cyclamen'' ( or ) is a genus of 23 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. ''Cyclamen'' species are ...

''), and the

spider mite Spider mites are members of the Tetranychidae family, which includes about 1,200 species. They are part of the subclass Acari (mites). Spider mites generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, a ...

s of the Tetranychidae (e.g. the two-spotted spider mite, ''

Tetranychus urticae ''Tetranychus urticae'' (common names include red spider mite and two-spotted spider mite) is a species of plant-feeding mite generally considered to be a pest. It is the most widely known member of the family Tetranychidae or spider mites. It ...

''). Other Prostigmata live as parasites on

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

s (e.g. ''

Demodex ''Demodex'' is a genus of tiny mites that live in or near hair follicles of mammals. Around 65 species of ''Demodex'' are known. Two species live on humans: ''Demodex folliculorum'' and ''Demodex brevis'', both frequently referred to as eyelash ...

'' mites of the

Demodecidae ''Demodecidae'' is a family of parasitic mites, living on various species of mammals. Each species of mite is usually only found on a single mammal species, whereas a mammal species can have several different species of demodecid mites living o ...

) or

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s (e.g. ''

Polydiscia deuterosminthurus ''Polydiscia deuterosminthurus'' is a species of mite recently discovered in the autonomous community of Navarre in Spain. Only the six-legged larval stage is so far known. This lives as a parasite on the springtail '' Deuterosminthurus bisetos ...

'' of the

Tanaupodidae Tanaupodidae is a family of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes The Trombidiformes are a large, diverse order of mites. Taxonomy In 1998, Trombidiformes was divided into the Sphaerolichida and the Prostigmata. The group has few syna ...

or the honeybee tracheal mite, ''

Acarapis woodi ''Acarapis woodi'' is an internal parasite affecting honey bees, the symptoms of infestation was originally observed on the Isle of Wight in 1904, but was not species description, described until 1921. ''Acarapis woodi'' mites live and reproduce ...

'', of the Tarsonemidae). There are also some forms (e.g.

Smarididae Smarididae is a family of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes. These large predatory mites have long oval bodies, distinctively pointed in front. They are usually red and densely hairy with slender legs, sometimes very long. They have e ...

) that are

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s of small invertebrates – including smaller Prostigmata – yet others have a more varied lifestyle (e.g.

Tydeidae Tydeidae is a family of acariform mites. As of 2016, it contained over 300 species in three subfamilies, though more species have been discovered since then. These mites live in a wide range of habitats and there are predatory, fungivorous an ...

) or switch their food sources as they mature (e.g.

Erythraeidae Erythraeidae is a family of mites belonging to the Trombidiformes. Larval forms of these mites are parasitic on various other arthropods, for example harvestmen, but the adults are free-living predators. These oval mites are rather large, usually ...

). The suborder also includes the family

Halacaridae Halacaridae is a family of meiobenthic mites found in marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats around the world. It includes more than 1100 described species belonging to 64 genera It is the largest marine radiation of arachnids. Description ...

(marine mites). Some of the Prostigmata parasitizing vertebrates are of medical relevance due to causing skin diseases in humans. These include for example

harvest mite Trombiculidae (); commonly referred to in North America as chiggers and in Britain as harvest mites, but also known as berry bugs, bush-mites, red bugs or scrub-itch mites, are a family of mites. Chiggers are often confused with jiggers – a t ...

s ("chiggers") of the

Trombiculidae Trombiculidae (); commonly referred to in North America as chiggers and in Britain as harvest mites, but also known as berry bugs, bush-mites, red bugs or scrub-itch mites, are a family of mites. Chiggers are often confused with Tunga penetrans, ...

Systematics and taxonomy

The Prostigmata make up the bulk of the acariform

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

, which also contains the minor and quite ancient lineage

Sphaerolichida The Sphaerolichida is a suborder of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes The Trombidiformes are a large, diverse order of mites. Taxonomy In 1998, Trombidiformes was divided into the Sphaerolichida and the Prostigmata. The group has ...

. The trombidiform mites are possibly the most promising approach to untangle the

systematics Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic tre ...

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

and

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of the notoriously complex Acariformes. Trombidiformes and the other acariform clade,

Sarcoptiformes The Sarcoptiformes are an order of Acari comprising over 15,000 described species in around 230 families. Previously it was divided into two suborders, Oribatida and Astigmatina, but Oribatida has been promoted to an order, and Astigmatina is n ...

, were formerly considered

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

s but this does not allow for a sufficiently precise classification of the mites and is adjusted in more modern treatments. They contain a few of the little-known "

Endeostigmata Endeostigmata is a suborder of acariform mites. There are about ten families in Endeostigmata. The grouping is strongly suspected to be paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most ...

" – apparently an assemblage of several specialized but unrelated lineages – which for the most part appear to be Sarcoptiformes however. In addition, the Trombidiformes include the bulk of the presumed group of mites called "Actinedida". This

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

is still commonly encountered in systematic treatments. However, modern

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

studies time and again fail to find any

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group corresponding to the "Actinedida". Thus, they appear to be an

evolutionary grade A grade is a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit. Definition An evolutionary grade is a group of ...

rather than an evolutionary lineage, united not by their

apomorph In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

ies but by the lack of such characters that have evolved after the Acariformes separated from the

Parasitiformes Parasitiformes are a superorder of Arachnids, constituting one of the two major groups of mites, alongside Acariformes. Parasitiformes has, at times, been classified at the rank of order or suborder. It is uncertain whether Parasitiformes and A ...

. Thus, the "Actinedida" seem to be a massively

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

wastebin taxon Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the sole purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined ...

", uniting all Acariformes that are not "typical"

Oribatida Oribatida (formerly Cryptostigmata), also known as oribatid mites, moss mites or beetle mites, are an order (biology), order of mites, in the "chewing Acariformes" clade Sarcoptiformes. They range in size from . There are currently 12,000 species ...

and

Astigmata Astigmatina is a clade of mites in the superorder Acariformes. Astigmata has been ranked as an order or suborder in the past, but was lowered to the unranked clade Astigmatina of the clade Desmonomatides (synonym Desmonomata) in the order Sarcopt ...

. The Prostigmata present their own taxonomic and systematic problems even in the redefined

delimitation Boundary delimitation (or simply delimitation) is the drawing of boundaries, particularly of electoral precincts, states, counties or other municipalities.

. They are variously subdivided into the

Anystina The Prostigmata is a suborder of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes, which contains the "sucking" members of the "true mites" (Acariformes). Many species are notorious pests on plants. Well-known examples of prostigmatan plant parasit ...

and

Eleutherengona The Prostigmata is a suborder of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes, which contains the "sucking" members of the "true mites" (Acariformes). Many species are notorious pests on plants. Well-known examples of prostigmatan plant parasit ...

, and

Eupodina The Prostigmata is a suborder of mites belonging to the order Trombidiformes, which contains the "sucking" members of the "true mites" (Acariformes). Many species are notorious pests on plants. Well-known examples of prostigmatan plant parasit ...

. The delimitation and interrelationships of these groups are entirely unclear; while most analyses find one of the latter two but not the other to be a subgroup of the Anystina, neither of these mutually contradicting hypotheses is very robust; possibly this is a simple error because

phylogenetic software This list of phylogenetics software is a compilation of computational phylogenetics software used to produce phylogenetic trees. Such tools are commonly used in comparative genomics, cladistics, and bioinformatics. Methods for estimating phylogenie ...

usually fails in handling non-

dichotomous A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simultan ...

phylogenies. Consequently it may be best for the time being to consider each of the three main prostigmatan lineages to be equally distinct from the other two, not including either Eleutherengona or Eupodina in the Anystina in accord with the traditional view – the

Anystina are here considered the largest possible clade containing the Anystidae but no taxon assigned to the other two suborders.

Currently accepted taxonomy

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxonomic Info ...

and

Integrated Taxonomic Information System The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. ITIS was originally formed in 1996 as an interagenc ...

accept the following taxonomy for Prostigmata, including four infraorders:

Anystina

* Superfamily Adamystoidea * Superfamily Allotanaupodoidea * Superfamily Amphotrombioidea * Superfamily Anystoidea * Superfamily Arrenuroidea * Superfamily Caeculoidea * Superfamily Calyptostomatoidea * Superfamily Chyzerioidea * Superfamily Erythraeoidea * Superfamily Eylaoidea * Superfamily Hydrachnoidea * Superfamily Hydrovolzioidea * Superfamily Hydryphantoidea * Superfamily Hygrobatoidea * Superfamily Lebertioidea * Superfamily Paratydeoidea * Superfamily Pomerantzioidea * Superfamily Stygothrombioidea * Superfamily Tanaupodoidea * Superfamily Trombiculoidea * Superfamily Trombidioidea * Superfamily Yurebilloidea

Eleutherengona

(Also known as Eleutherengonides) * Superfamily

Cheyletoidea Cheyletoidea is a superfamily of mites in the order Trombidiformes. They are parasites of other arthropods and vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all ...

* Superfamily Cloacaroidea * Superfamily Dolichocyboidea * Superfamily Heterocheyloidea * Superfamily Myobioidea * Superfamily Pterygosomatoidea * Superfamily Pyemotoidea * Superfamily Raphignathoidea * Superfamily Scutacaroidea * Superfamily Tarsocheyloidea * Superfamily Tarsonemoidea * Superfamily

Tetranychoidea Tetranychoidea is a superfamily of mites in the order Trombidiformes. There are about 5 families and more than 2,200 described species in Tetranychoidea. Families These five families belong to the superfamily Tetranychoidea: * Allochaetophorid ...

* Superfamily Trochometridioidea

Eupodina

* Superfamily

Bdelloidea Bdelloidea (Greek ''βδέλλα'', ''bdella'', "leech") is a class of rotifers found in freshwater habitats all over the world. There are over 450 described species of bdelloid rotifers (or 'bdelloids'), distinguished from each other mainly o ...

* Superfamily

Eriophyoidea Eriophyoidea are a superfamily of herbivorous mites. All post-embryonic instars lack the third and fourth pairs of legs. The respiratory system is also absent. The taxonomy of this group has always been confused. There were families created for ...

* Superfamily

Eupodoidea Eupodoidea is a superfamily of mites in the order Trombidiformes. There are about 8 families and more than 160 described species in Eupodoidea. Description Eupodoids are soft-bodied mites that are red, red and black, white or yellow in colour ...

* Superfamily Halacaroidea * Superfamily Tydeoidea

Labidostommatina

* Superfamily Labidostommatoidea: monotypic family Labidostommatidae

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q137929 Trombidiformes Arthropod suborders