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Fig. 1.  Sinobryobia fani - adult female, dorsum

Fig. 2.  S. fani - adult female, dorsum

Fig. 3.  S. fani - adult female, empodia

Fig. 4.  S. fani - adult female, venter

Fig. 5.  S. fani - adult female, venter

Fig. 6.  S. fani - adult female, legs

Material examined

types

Taxonomy

Subfamily Bryobiinae

Tribe Bryobiini

Distribution

*Australia: south eastern Queensland

Taxonomy Changes

None

Diagnosis

Female (Figs 1, 2) 

• empodium = short pad with two rows of ventral tenent hairs (Fig. 3) 
• true claws = well developed claw with two tenent hairs (Fig. 3)
• dorsum with smooth to lightly finely rugose prodorsal and pygidial shields (Fig. 1) 
• dorsal cuticle between shields with widely spaced striae (Fig. 1) 
• ventral cuticle with widely space striae (Figs 4, 5) 
• lateral cuticle of body granulate, with regular spicules, strongly spiculate around coxae III
• forked setae present distally on tarsi I-IV (tarsi I-II = 1; tarsi III-IV = 3)
• femur I with dorsal pusticulate ornamentation (Fig. 6) 
• leg chaetotaxy (Fig. 6):
  • femora I-IV 11, 7, 5, 5
  • genua I-IV 9, 3, 4, 5
  • tibiae I-IV 10, 5, 5, 5
  • tarsi I-IV 19(3+2), 13(1+2), 10, 10

Male unknown

Hosts

Unknown - collected from leaf litter in dry sclerophyll forest.

Similar Taxa

Sinobryobia chinensis from China

Biology

Nothing is known of the ecology and biology of these mites.

References

*Beard, J.J. (2003)  New record of Sinobryobia (Acari: Tetranychidae: Bryobiinae) in Australia with description of a new species.  International Journal of Acarology 29: 133-138

Notes

Sinobryobia chinensis was collected from a weed, and no other representatives of this genus were collected in the world until S. fani was found in leaf litter in Brisbane.