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

Three 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]

Maindronia currently comprises three described species:

  • Maindronia beieri Schremmer, 1964 – North Africa
  • Maindronia neotropicalis Bouvier, 1897 – Peru and Chile
  • Maindronia mascatensis Bouvier, 1897 – Middle East

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][2]

References
  1. 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.
  2. 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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