Parasitiformes

Parasitiformes
A tick of the species Ixodes ricinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Subclass:	Acari
Superorder:	Parasitiformes
Orders and main families
Ixodida Ixodidae (Hard ticks) Argasidae (Soft ticks) Nuttalliellidae Holothyrida Allothyridae Holothyridae Neothyridae Mesostigmata over 65 families

The Parasitiformes are a superorder of Acari (treated as a suborder in an outdated classification). Many species are parasitic (most famous of which are ticks), but not all; for example, about half of the 10,000 known species in the suborder Mesostigmata are predatory and cryptozoan, living in the soil-litter, rotting wood, dung, carrion, nests or house dust. A few species have switched to grazing on fungi or ingesting spores or pollen.

The phytoseiid mites, which account for about 15% of all described Mesostigmata are used with great success for biological control.

There are over 12,000 described species of Parasitiformes, and the total estimate is between 100,000 and 200,000 species.

References

• David Walter, Heather Proctor (1999) Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, CABI Publishing.

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