Parasitiformes
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 A tick of the species Ixodes ricinus
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The Parasitiformes are a suborder of Acari. 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 live 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.
The phylogenetic position of mites is rather disputed. Mites are sometimes considered a subclass of arachnids, in which case the Parasitiformes are a superorder or an order.
There are over 12,000 described species of Parasitiformes, and the total estimate is between 100,000 and 200,000 species.
[edit] References
- David Walter, Heather Proctor (1999) Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, CABI Publishing.
