Caeculus Dufour, 1832

Porta K, Andrés O., MichalikK, Peter & Ramírez K, Martín J., 2022, Caeculus fedrae sp. nov., a new fossil species of rake-legged mite (Acari: Caeculidae) from Baltic amber., Acarologia 62 (4), pp. 1154-1170 : 1155

Genus Caeculus Dufour, 1832

Type species: Caeculus echinipes Dufour, 1832 by monotypy.

Diagnosis — (based on Coineau 1974) – Caeculus corresponds to caeculids with dorsal plates without intensive neotrichy, ω solenidium dorsally located, famulus ε dorsal and hidden,

famulus κ″ recessive, hidden; eupathidia with the typical shape of ′baguette de tambour′ (stick drum) of most of the genera of the family, legs with lateral claws equally sized in each tarsus,

with trichobothria on all tarsi and tridactyly evident.

Remark — Except for the species C. echinipes , which has been studied in detail by Y.

Coineau in his monograph on the family (1974), and two species recently described ( Bernard et al. 2020 ; Porta and Vazquez 2020), all the other species of the genus need to be redescribed.