Maindroniidae

Maindroniidae
Maindronia bashagardensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Zygentoma
Family:	Maindroniidae Escherich, 1905
Genus:	Maindronia Bouvier, 1897
Species
Maindronia bashagardensis Maindronia beieri Maindronia mascatensis Maindronia neotropicalis

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: ^[2]

• Maindronia bashagardensisSmith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 – Iran
• Maindronia beieriSchremmer, 1964 – Sudan
• Maindronia mascatensisBouvier, 1897 – Oman and UAE
• Maindronia neotropicalisBouvier, 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. "Life at the limit: creatures similar to silverfish discovered in Earth's driest desert" (Press release). University of Cologne. 24 March 2020.

External links

• 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.