Ectopsocidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Psocodea Psocodea is a taxonomic group of insects comprising the bark lice, book lice and parasitic lice. It was formerly considered a superorder, but is now generally considered by entomologists as an order. Despite the greatly differing appearance of ...

(formerly

Psocoptera Psocoptera are a paraphyletic group of insects that are commonly known as booklice, barklice or barkflies. The name Psocoptera has been replaced with Psocodea in recent literature, with the inclusion of the former order Phthiraptera into Psocode ...

) (book lice or bark lice) belonging to the

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 ...

Psocomorpha Psocomorpha is a suborder of barklice, booklice, and parasitic lice in the order Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera). There are more than 20 families and 5,300 described species in Psocomorpha. Phylogeny The below cladogram of Psocodea shows the p ...

. The family includes fewer than 200 species, most of them in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Ectopsocus''.

Distribution & Habitat

They are distributed worldwide, with the highest diversity in Asia. In the genera '' Ectopsocus'' and '' Ectopsocopsis'', fourteen species are known from North America. Ectopsocids have been found to inhabit dead leaves on tree branches and leaf litter.

Description

Members of the family are characterized by their absence of an areola postica in their wings, like in the family

Peripsocidae Peripsocidae is a family of Psocodea (formerly Psocoptera) belonging to the suborder Psocomorpha. Members of the family are characterised by their absence of an areola postica in their wings. Many of the recently described genera are closely alli ...

. These are brown, small-sized bark lice (1.5-2.5 mm, both nymphs and adults) with or without markings on wings.

Distinctive features

The following are the distinctive features of these family members: *Robust, small-bodied bark lice: 1.5-2.5 mm in length. *

Forewing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwin ...

s are short, broad, and held in horizontal position (rather than tent-like as in other psocids). *Forewing

pterostigma The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer insect wing, wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonfly, dragonfli ...

is rectangular. *Forewing areola postica is absent. *Hindwing veins Rs and M are connected by crossvein.

References

*Lienhard, C. & Smithers, C. N. 2002. Psocoptera (Insecta): World Catalogue and Bibliography. Instrumenta Biodiversitatis, vol. 5. Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Genève.

* ohnson, K. P. & E. L. Mockford. 2003. Molecular Systematics of Psocomorpha (Psocoptera). Systematic Entomology 28: 409-40.* ohnson, K. P., K. Yoshizawa, and V. S. Smith. 2004. Multiple origins of parasitism in lice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271:1771-1776.* ienhard, C. and C. N Smithers. 2002. Psocoptera (Insecta) World Catalogue and Bibliography. Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, Switzerland.* ockford, E. L. 1993. North American Psocoptera (Insecta). Gainesville, Florida: Sandhill Crane Press.* ew, T.R. 2005. Psocids, Psocoptera (Booklice and barklice), 2nd edition: Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects. Vol. 1, Part 7. Royal Entomological Society, London, UK.*[Smithers, C. N. 1996. Psocoptera. pp. 1–80, 363-372 (Index) in Wells A. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 26. Psocoptera, Phthiraptera, Thysanoptera. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, Australia.] *[Yoshizawa, K. 2002. Phylogeny and higher classification of suborder Psocomorpha (Insecta: Psocodea:'Psocoptera'). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 371-400] Ectopsocidae, Psocoptera families {{Psocoptera-stub