Caeculidae, also known as rake-legged mites, is a family of mites in the order
Trombidiformes
Trombidiformes is 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 acariform ...
, 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 International Commission on Stratigraphy's (ICS) geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or the lowest stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Cretace ...
aged Burmese amber
Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. Th ...
, 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 (god), Vulcan, and the legendary founder of Praeneste (modern Palestrina).
King Caeculus appears in Book VII of Virgil's ''Aene ...
'' Dufour, 1832
* '' Calocaeculus'' Coineau, 1974
* '' Microcaeculus'' Franz, 1952
* '' Neocaeculus'' Coineau, 1967
*'' Procaeculus'' Jacot 1936
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Trombidiformes
Acari families
{{trombidiformes-stub