Palaeacaroidea

Grandjean, 1932

Family Guides

Adelphacaridae

Palaeacaroidea is a superfamily of oribatid mites established by Grandjean in 1932. It belongs to the infraorder Palaeosomata, a group of primitive mites characterized by plesiomorphic morphological features. The superfamily represents one of the earliest-diverging lineages within the Oribatida, often called 'moss mites' or 'beetle mites'. Records of this group are extremely sparse, with only two observations documented on iNaturalist.

Damaeus by (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas. Used under a CC-BY license.

Epidermoptidae by (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Cricket Raspet. Used under a CC-BY license.

Psoroptidae by (c) Oleksii Vasyliuk, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Oleksii Vasyliuk. Used under a CC-BY license.

Pronunciation

How to pronounce Palaeacaroidea: /ˌpæliˌækəˈrɔɪdiə/

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Taxonomic Position

Palaeacaroidea is placed within the infraorder Palaeosomata, which represents the most basal group of oribatid mites. Palaeosomata is distinguished by retaining numerous ancestral characteristics lost in more derived oribatid groups.

Data Scarcity

This superfamily is extremely poorly represented in public databases. The two iNaturalist observations likely represent incidental detections rather than targeted survey effort. Most knowledge of this group is restricted to taxonomic literature and museum specimens.