Tydeidae
Taxonomic placing: Acari, Prostigmata.
Morphology: The bodies of the Tydeidae are about 0.2-0.4 mm in length. They are soft, yellow or green to pink, often covered by striations or by complex or reticulated patterns and shields. Some species have two or three eyes whereas others are eyeless. Their palpi lack the thumb claw.
Life history: Members of this family, with about 330 described species, occur in many habitats, feeding on detritus, fungi, nematodes and eriophyids. They are arrhenotokous and can complete a generation in 2-3 weeks. About 330 species have been named.
Economic importance: By feeding on fungi some tydeid species reduce the damage due to sootymold that colonize fruits infested by coccids, and that of powdery mildew fungi infecting grapevines. Tydeids also reduce nematode numbers in the soil.
References
André, H.M. 1980. A generic revision of the family Tydeidae (Acari: Actinedida). IV. Generic descriptions, keys and conclusions. Bulletin et Annales de la Societe Royale Belge d’Entomologie 116: 103–68.
André, H.M. and Fain, A. 2000. Phylogeny, ontogeny and adaptive radiation in the superfamily Tydeoidea (Acari: Actinedida), with a reappraisal of morphological characters. Zoological journal of the Linnean Society 130: 405-448.
Da Silva, G.L., Metzelthin, M.H., Da Silva, O.S. and Ferla, N.J. 2016. Catalogue of the mite family Tydeidae (Acari: Prostigmata) with the world key to the species. Zootaxa 4135: 1-68.
El-Bagoury, M.E. and Momen, F.M. 1990 Neoapolorryia gen.n. of the family Tydeidae from Egypt (Acari: Tydeoidea). Entomologische Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum Hamburg, 138: 25–28.
Gerson, U. 1968. Five tydeid mites from Israel (Acarina: Prostigmata). Israel Journal of Zoology 17:191-198.
Kaźmierski, A. 1998. Tydeinae of the world: generic relationships, new and redescribed taxa and keys to all species. A revision of the subfamilies Pretydeinae and Tydeinae (Acari: Actinedida: Tydeidae) — part IV. Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia 41: 283–455.
Khanjani, M. and Ueckermann, E.A. 2003. Four new tydeid species from Iran (Acari: Prostigmata). Zootaxa, 182: 1–11.
Mendel, Z. and Gerson, U. 1982. Is the mite Lorryia formosa Cooreman (Prostigmata: Tydeidae) a sanitizing agent in citrus groves? Acta Oecologia 3: 47-51.
Momen, F.M. 2005. A new mite of the subfamily Tydeinae (Acari: Actinedida: Tydeidae) from Egypt. Acarologia 45: 189-192.
Sadeghi, H., Łaniecka, I. and Kaźmierski, A. 2012. Tydeoid mites (Acari: Triophtydeidae, Iolinidae, Tydeidae) of Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran, with description of three new species. Annales Zoologici 62: 99-114.
Santos, P.F., Phillips, J. and Whitford, W.G. 1981. The role of mites and nematodes in early stages of buried litter decomposition in a desert. Ecology 62: 664-669.
Ueckermann, E.A., Cobanoğlu, S. and Öğreten, A. 2019 Re-description of two new tydeid records (Acari: Trombidiformes) with a key to Tydoidea species of Turkey. Systematic and Applied Acarology 24: 497-507.
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