Eriophyoidea are a superfamily of

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

mite Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

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. Amrine and T. A. Stasny within larger groups. Today the following three families are believed to belong to superfamily Eriophyoidea: *

Eriophyidae Eriophyidae is a family of more than 200 genera of mites, which live as plant parasites, commonly causing galls or other damage to the plant tissues and hence known as gall mites. About 3,600 species have been described, but this is probably l ...

Nalepa, 1898 * Phytoptidae Murray, 1877 * Diptilomiopidae Keifer, 1944 The group is ancient, with forms with two pairs of legs, already similar to the modern ones being found in

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...

from Italy: ''

Ampezzoa ''Ampezzoa triassica'' is an extinct species of gall mite described from the Carnian of northeastern Italy. It lived as a parasite of Cheirolepidiaceae trees. The only known specimen, preserved in amber, is 0.124 mm long. It resembles very ...

,'' ''

Triasacarus ''Triasacarus fedelei'' is an extinct species of gall mite described from the Carnian of northeastern Italy. It lived as a parasite of Cheirolepidiaceae trees. The only known specimen, preserved in amber, is 0.210 mm long. Along with '' Amp ...

,'' '' Minyacarus'' and '' Cheirolepidoptus,'' which were specialised on extinct conifers belonging to the family

Cheirolepidiaceae Cheirolepidiaceae is an extinct family of conifers. They first appeared in the Triassic, and were widespread during most of the Mesozoic era. They are united by the possession of a distinctive pollen type assigned to the form genus '' Classopoll ...

. The four genera were subsequently placed in a new extinct clade, the Triasacaroidea, which is the sister group to the extant Eriophyoidea. While traditionally considered members of the clade

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 ...

, they have been found to be an early diverging mite clade outside the clade containing Trombidiformes and Sarcoptiformes in recent genomic analyses.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389487 Sarcoptiformes Arthropod superfamilies hu:Gubacsatka-félék