Acarina

Classification

Order of Arthropoda.

General Information

The order Acarina, including mites and ticks, contains numerous economically and medically important species that are parasitic on humans, domesticated or hunted animals, and crops, food, etc. Unlike other chelicerates, members of the Acarina lack a visible body division. Thus, the abdominal segmentation has disappeared and the abdomen has fused with the praesoma; the portion of the body on which the legs are inserted (the podosoma) is broadly joined to the portion of the body behind the legs (the opisthosoma) to form the idiosoma (Fig. 1). Another general feature of the group is the appearance of the anterior (head) region carrying the mouth parts (a pair of chelicerae and of pedipalps), this region being called the capitulum or gnathosoma. The chelicerae and pedipalps are variable in structure, depending on their function in the different groups (Argas, Fig. 1, Ixodes , Fig. 1, Mites, Fig. 1, Neotrombicula autumnalis...