| Quill mites | |
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| Tanopicobia trachyphoni (Picobiinae) dorsal and ventral view | |
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| Family: | Syringophilidae Lavoipierre, 1953
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Syringophilidae is a family of mites, commonly known as quill mites. They are obligatory ectoparasites of birds, and inhabit their feather quills where they feed on subcutaneous tissue and fluids.[1] Typically the Syringophilinae inhabit all but the body feathers (primaries, secondaries, tertials, rectrices and wing coverts), while the Picobinae specialize in infecting the body feathers internally.[2] Quill mites have been recorded from hundreds of bird species, belonging to 95 families and 24 orders. Much knowledge of their hosts, diversity and systematics has been obtained since the late 1990s,[2] but as of 2020 these were still considered to be poorly known.[1]
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
glo3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Glowska, Eliza; Chrzanowski, Mateusz; Kaszewska, Katarzyna (9 June 2015). "Checklist of the Quill mites (Acariformes: Syringophilidae) of the World". Zootaxa. 3968 (1): 1–81. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3968.1.1. PMID 26249476. Retrieved 23 January 2022.