Eriophyoidea
Encyclopedia
Eriophyoidea or is a superfamily of herbivorous
mite
s. 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 few or even one species, i.e. Ashieldophyidae Mohanasundaram, 1984 and Pentasetacidae Shevchenko, 1991 but these families were placed by J. W. Armine and T. A. Stasny within larger groups. Today the following three families are believed to belong to superfamily Eriophyoidea:
Herbivore
Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...
mite
Mite
Mites, along with ticks, are small arthropods belonging to the subclass Acari and the class Arachnida. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology.-Diversity and systematics:...
s. 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 few or even one species, i.e. Ashieldophyidae Mohanasundaram, 1984 and Pentasetacidae Shevchenko, 1991 but these families were placed by J. W. Armine and T. A. Stasny within larger groups. Today the following three families are believed to belong to superfamily Eriophyoidea:
- Eriophyidae Nalepa, 1898
- Phytoptidae Murray, 1877
- Diptilomiopidae Keifer, 1944