Parasitiformes | |
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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 | |
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The Parasitiformes are a superorder of Acari (treated as a suborder in an outdated classification).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.
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