Taxonomic Position

Cohort Gamasina

Subcohort Dermanyssiae

    Superfamily Dermanyssoidea

Laelapidae Trägårdh

Melittiphis Berlese  

 

Diagnostic characters:

• Hypertrichous associates of honeybees with a sternal keel and a bullet-shaped ventrianal shield.

 

Similar taxa.  See Tropilaelaps, Varroa, and Euvarroa.

 

Ecology & Distribution.  Pollen thieves in honeybee hives.

 

 

References

Casanueva ME.  1993.  Phylogenetic studies of the free-living arthropod associated Laelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata).  Gayana Zoologica 57: 21-46.

Evans GO & WM Till  1966.  Studies on the British Dermanyssidae (Acari: Mesostigmata).  Part II.  Classification.  Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Zool. 14: 109-370.