Abstract
The family Davacaridae is shown to consist of at least two genera (Davacarus Hunter, Acanthodavacarus n. gen.) and four species that are distributed from subantarctic islands (D. gressetti Hunter) to Tasmania (D. reginaldi n. sp.), and to mainland Australia (D. lindquisti n. sp., A. klompeni n. sp.) at least as far north as the subtropical rainforests of south-east Queensland. These mites share a number of striking synapomorphies including the paedomorphic retention of the deutonymphal pattern of sclerotized plates in the adult, a secondary thickening of the cuticle around those plates and a lateral cheliceral excrescence that adheres to the cheliceral teeth. Species of Davacarus have lost the pregenital shield, have an intricate endogynium and four pairs of large, sessile opisthosomal glands; species of Acanthodavacarus have a pregenital shield with a pair of setae and two pairs of hypertrophied opisthosomal glands on short horn-like protrusions.
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