Maindroniidae
| Maindroniidae | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Zygentoma |
| Family: | Maindroniidae Escherich, 1905 |
| Genus: | Maindronia Bouvier, 1897 |
| Species include | |
Maindroniidae is a very small family of silverfish, basal insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. It contains just a single genus, Maindronia, and a handful of species.
Four species of these insects are found in some of the driest deserts on Earth: 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] A new species in this family was recently discovered in Hormozgan province, Iran.[2]
Maindronia currently comprises four described species:
- Maindronia bashagardensis Smith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 - Iran
- Maindronia beieri Schremmer, 1964 – North Africa
- Maindronia mascatensis Bouvier, 1897 – Middle East
- Maindronia neotropicalis Bouvier, 1897 – Peru and Chile
Recent findings from a phylogenetic study using the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the 18S genes showed that Maindronia neotropicalis, inhabiting the Chilean Atacama desert, is in fact 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 they await formal description.[1][3]
References
- ^ a b Zúñiga-Reinoso, Alvaro; Reinhard, Predel (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. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.103007.
- ^ https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-new-species-of-Maindronia-Bouvier%2C-1897-from-Iran-Smith-Molero-Baltan%C3%A1s/713ffbbcb971acc1d37ba87894210d17402a1ccd
- ^ Reinhard Predel, Jan Voelkel: Life at the limit: creatures similar to silverfish discovered in Earth’s driest desert. University of Cologne. Press release as of March 24, 2020
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