TNZOR Zygentoma
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Familiae (3):
Notes
- the above list of familiae differs from the NZIB checklist [p. 398] in having ?TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE instead of LEPIDOTRICHIDAE
- in the NZIB text [p. 243], it is stated that 'there are apparently seven or eight undescribed species in several genera in the families Ateluridae and Tricholepidiidae (as Lepidotrichidae) (Wise 1970a)'
- Engel (2006) proposed TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE as a new family for the only extant species previously placed in LEPIDOTRICHIDAE
- it is therefore clear that the NZIB checklist almost certainly should have listed TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE instead of LEPIDOTRICHIDAE
- since LEPIDOTRICHIDAE is a valid family, albeit now a fossil family as far as is known, it is technically unsafe to reassign the purported (undescribed) taxon/taxa from N.Z. to TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE without careful reexamination of the N.Z. material, which almost certainly has not been done
- it does however seem overwhelmingly more likely that any extant new taxa would belong to TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE, rather than to LEPIDOTRICHIDAE, so I list the former family, but with a question mark
- at any rate, the N.Z. record of TRICHOLEPIDIIDAE/LEPIDOTRICHIDAE is highly dubious, since there is only one extant species known in the world (western North America)
