Caeculidae, also known as rake-legged mites, is a family of mites in 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 ...
, the only family of the superfamily Caeculoidea. There are about 9 genera and about 100 described species in Caeculidae which occur world-wide.
[ The oldest records of the family are from the ]Cenomanian
The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...
aged Burmese amber, belonging to the extant genus '' Procaeculus.''
Genera
These six genera belong to the family Caeculidae:
* '' Allocaeculus'' Franz, 1952
* '' Andocaeculus'' Coineau, 1974
* ''Caeculus
In Roman mythology, Caeculus (meaning "little blind boy", from ''caecus'' "blind")Grimalp. 83/ref> was a son of Vulcan, and the legendary founder of Praeneste (modern Palestrina).
King Caeculus appears in Book VII of Virgil's ''Aeneid'' as an ally ...
'' Dufour, 1832
* '' Calocaeculus'' Coineau, 1974
* '' Microcaeculus'' Franz, 1952
* '' Neocaeculus'' Coineau, 1967
*'' Procaeculus'' Jacot 1936
References
Further reading
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External links
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Trombidiformes
Acari families
{{trombidiformes-stub