Family ARRHOPALITIDAE
Compiler and date details
Penelope Greenslade, School of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Introduction
This taxon was originally considered to have tribal status (Stach 1956) but was raised to family level by Betsch (1980). Bretfeld (1999) follows the same higher classification. It is a small and rare family in Australia consisting of one genus and two species. All species in this genus have reduced eyes and pigment and are soil and cave-living. Some species appear to be introduced.
Diagnosis
Characterised by: thorax I reduced and without setae, mandibular plate present, thorax II to abdomen IV more or less fused and globular, postantennal organ absent, antenna III equal to or shorter than antenna IV, normally with 4 ocelli at most, pigment reduced, clavate tenent hairs absent, trochanateral organ (not spine) present.
General References
Betsch, J.M. 1980. Éléments pour une monographie des Collemboles Symphypléones. (Hexapodes, Aptérygotes). Mémoires du Muséum Nationale d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris Zool. 116: 1-227
Bretfeld, G. 1999. Synopses on Palaearctic Collembola. WinterDruck, Herrnhut : Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz Vol. 2 318 pp.
Richards, W.R. 1968. Generic classification, evolution and biogeography of the Sminthuridae of the world (Collembola). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 53: 1-54
Stach, J. 1956. The Apterygotan fauna of Poland in relation to the world-fauna of this group of insects. Family: Sminthuridae. Cracow : Pol. Akad. Nauk Pt 6 287 pp. 33 pls