Entognatha

Baumann, Julia, 2018, Tiny mites on a great journey - a review on scutacarid mites as phoronts and inquilines (Heterostigmatina, Pygmephoroidea, Scutacaridae), Acarologia 58 (1), pp. 192-251 : 202

Entognatha

Only one scutacarid species, Imparipes intentatus Khaustov, 2008 , has been reported from Entognatha, all other hexapod hosts belong to Ectognatha. The respective host is a member of the Diplura , genus Campodea ( Khaustov 2008; Annex I). As diplurans occur frequently in soil and don’t have strong dispersal abilities due to their small size, the found association between mite and diplurans may have been by chance. When extracted through Berlese-Tullgren funnels and kept alive in boxes filled with plaster of Paris, some scutacarids appear to be stressed and for short periods of time tend to attach to whatever host available (pers. obs.). In these artificial environments scutacarid individuals have even been observed to “desperately” cling to other conspecifics. Bearing this behaviour in mind, unusual reports of phoresy like that on diplurans should be taken with a grain of salt.

n.k., not known (not given in literature). The group “insects” comprises Entognatha, Dermaptera , Diptera, Heteroptera , Isoptera and Orthoptera as well as hosts that have not been defined further in literature.