Ectopsocidae

Ectopsocidae
Ectopsocus petersi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Psocoptera
Suborder:	Psocomorpha
Infraorder:	Homilopsocidea
Family:	Ectopsocidae
Genera
Belipsocus Ectianoculus Ectopsocopsis Ectopsocus Ectotrichus Estipulaceus Mascaropsocus

Ectopsocidae is a family of Psocoptera (book lice or bark lice) belonging to the suborder Psocomorpha. Members of the family are characterised by their absence of an areola postica in their wings, like in the family Peripsocidae. The family includes fewer than 200 species, most of them in the genus Ectopsocus.

Distribution

The family includes fewer than 200 species, most of them in the genus Ectopsocus distributed worldwide with highest diversity in Asia. In the genera Ectopsocus and Ectopsocopsis fourteen species are known from North America .

Description

Members of the family are characterised by their absence of an areola postica in their wings, like in the family Peripsocidae. These are brown, small-sized bark lice (1.5-2.5 mm, both nymphs and adults) with or without markings on wings.

Distinctive Features

The following are the distinctive features of these family members:

• Robust, small-bodied bark lice: 1.5-2.5 mm in length.
• Forewings are short, broad, and held in horizontal position (rather than tent-like as in other psocids).
• Forewing pterostigma is rectangular.
• Forewing areola postica is absent.
• Hindwing veins Rs and M are connected by crossvein.

Habitat

Ectopsocids have been found to inhabit dead leaves on tree branches and leaf litter.

Sources

• Lienhard, C. & Smithers, C. N. 2002. Psocoptera (Insecta): World Catalogue and Bibliography. Instrumenta Biodiversitatis, vol. 5. Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Genève.
• [1]
• [Johnson, K. P. & E. L. Mockford. 2003. Molecular Systematics of Psocomorpha (Psocoptera). Systematic Entomology 28: 409-40.]
• [Johnson, K. P., K. Yoshizawa, and V. S. Smith. 2004. Multiple origins of parasitism in lice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 271:1771-1776.]
• [Lienhard, C. and C. N Smithers. 2002. Psocoptera (Insecta) World Catalogue and Bibliography. Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, Switzerland.]
• [Mockford, E. L. 1993. North American Psocoptera (Insecta). Gainesville, Florida: Sandhill Crane Press.]
• [New, T.R. 2005. Psocids, Psocoptera (Booklice and barklice), 2nd edition: Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects. Vol. 1, Part 7. Royal Entomological Society, London, UK.]
• [Smithers, C. N. 1996. Psocoptera. pp. 1–80, 363-372 (Index) in Wells A. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Vol. 26. Psocoptera, Phthiraptera, Thysanoptera. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, Australia.]
• [Yoshizawa, K. 2002. Phylogeny and higher classification of suborder Psocomorpha (Insecta: Psocodea:'Psocoptera'). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 371-400]