House Dust Mite Classification: Understanding its Place in the Arthropoda Phylum

The house dust mite belongs to the scientific world known as **Arthropoda**. Here is a shortened version of how to find its place in this vast animal Kingdom.

Mite Taxonomic Hierarchy (Family Tree)

The phylum (fi/lum) Arthropoda is made up from 3 sub-sections called subphyla: Uniramia, Crustacea, and Chelicerata. House dust mites are arthropods belonging to **Chelicerata**, in the class **Arachnida**, order **Acari**. Within Acari, they belong to the suborder **Astigmata**. This is their family tree, so to speak. It's a bit easier to follow stepwise:

Within Arthropoda are Chelicerata, then they go down to Arachnida, then Acari, then Astigmata, and finally, *Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus*, the house dust mite.

The Chelicerata Subphylum

In addition to mites, the Chelicerata also includes horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, spiders, scorpions, and harvestman spiders (daddy longlegs).

It is important to recognise the difference between the subphylum Uniramia and subphylum Arachnida. Insects, centipedes, and millipedes belong to the Uniramia, while mites and spiders belong to Arachnida. Mites are not closely related to insects, and because of their differences many insecticides designed to control insects will not always be successful on mites.

Note: 'All ticks are mites but not all mites are ticks'