Maindroniidae
| Maindroniidae | |
|---|---|
_Figure_6.jpg) | |
| Maindronia bashagardensis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Zygentoma |
| Family: | Maindroniidae Escherich, 1905 |
| Species | |
Maindroniidae is a small family of silverfish, basal insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. It contains three genera.
Four species of these insects are found in deserts: in Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Atacama Desert on the west coast of Chile. The distribution of these closely related species suggests that Maindronia is a Gondwanan relict group.[1] In 2020, a new species in this family, Maindronia bashagardensis, was discovered in Hormozgan province, Iran.[2] There are no known existing specimens or illustrations of Maindronia mascatensis.[citation needed]
Taxonomy
[edit]It has been suggested that Maindroniidae should be divided in two subfamilies:[3]
- Atacaminae:
- Atacamus neotropicalis (Wygodzinsky, 1940) - Chile
- Peruatacamus atunpacha Irish, Zúñiga-Reinoso & Predel, 2025 - Perú
- Maindroniinae:
- Maindronia bashagardensis Smith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 – Iran
- Maindronia beieri Schremmer, 1964 – Sudan
- Maindronia mascatensis Bouvier, 1897 – Oman and UAE
Nota bene: A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a different genus
In 2019, a phylogenetic study using the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the 18S genes showed that Maindronia neotropicalis, inhabiting the Chilean Atacama desert, is an assemblage of five genetic lineages that diverged from a common ancestor around 15 million years ago. All of these five lineages are likely well-separated species, and await formal description.[1][4]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Zúñiga-Reinoso, Alvaro; Predel, Reinhard (November 2019). "Past climatic changes and their effects on the phylogenetic pattern of the Gondwanan relict Maindronia (Insecta: Zygentoma) in the Chilean Atacama Desert". Global and Planetary Change. 182 103007. Bibcode:2019GPC...18203007Z. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.103007. S2CID 202193978.
- ↑ Smith, Graeme B.; Molero-Baltanás, Rafael; Jaberhashemi, Seyed Aghil; Rafinejad, Javad (11 March 2020). "A new species of Maindronia Bouvier, 1897 from Iran (Zygentoma: Maindroniidae)" (PDF). Records of the Australian Museum. 72 (1): 9–21. doi:10.3853/j.2201-4349.72.2020.1760. S2CID 214697188.
- ↑ Irish, John; Zúñiga-Reinoso, Álvaro; Cieszynski, Hanna; Pohl, Hans; Predel, Reinhard (2025). "New genera of Neotropical Maindroniidae, with a redescription of Maindronia neotropicalis (Insecta, Zygentoma)". Zoologischer Anzeiger. 319: 349–377. doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2025.10.010.
- ↑ "Life at the limit: creatures similar to silverfish discovered in Earth's driest desert" (Press release). University of Cologne. 24 March 2020.
External links
[edit]
- Systematics of family
- Hogue, Charles Leonard (1993). "Silverfish". Latin American Insects and Entomology. University of California Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-520-07849-9.
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