Maindroniidae

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.

Maindroniidae
Maindronia bashagardensis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
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

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 bashagardensis Smith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 – Iran
  • Maindronia beieri Schremmer, 1964 – Sudan
  • Maindronia mascatensis Bouvier, 1897 – Oman and UAE
  • 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
  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.
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