A comprehensive revision of the genus Charletonia Oudemans, 1910 (Acarina:
Erythraeidae) is made from (1) representative specimens of the Oudemans collection,
Leiden Museum, of European, Asian, African, and Australasian species; (2) the South
Australian Museum collection containing Australian material, as well as European
material collected by Womersley; (3) the author's collection containing Australasian,
Asian, and European material; and (4) the collection of larval erythraeid mites ectoparasitic
upon Australian grasshoppers (and, to a small extent, phasmatids) of the
Australian National Insect Collection, Division of Entomology, CSIRO.
The genus is left with 32 species, comprising 5 European (1 new), 7 African
(1 new), 5 Asian (1 new), and 16 Australasian (10 new). One species, C. volzi (Oudemans),
is recorded from both Asia and Australasia. No North or South American
material was seen. It has been possible to key all of these species, the only exception
being that of C. ojirnai (Kishida) from Japan.
Some reference is made to the life history of C. kvendowskyi (Feider) from
Europe, and the egg stage described from preserved material.
The fragmentary holotype larva of Callidosoma dasypodiae (Womersley) is
redescribed, and brief reference is made to the rediscovery of this species, which has
allowed its correct generic placing, previously impossible from loss of diagnostic parts
of the original material.