Maindroniidae is a small family of silverfish, basal insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. It contains a single genus, Maindronia, and a handful of species.

Four species of these insects are found in deserts: 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. In 2020, a new species in this family, Maindronia bashagardensis, was discovered in Hormozgan province, Iran. There are no known existing specimen or illustrations of Maindronia mascatensis, and Maindroniidae has been suggested being divided into two subfamilies:

Atacaminae, currently comprises two described species:

• Atacamus neotropicalis Wygodzinsky, 1940 - Chile

• Peruatacamus atunpacha Irish, Zúñiga-Reinoso & Predel, 2025 - Perú

Maindroniinae, which includes three remaining species.

• Maindronia bashagardensis Smith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 – Iran

• Maindronia beieri Schremmer, 1964 – Sudan

• Maindronia mascatensis Bouvier, 1897 – Oman and UAE

In 2019, a phylogenetic study using the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the 18S genes showed that Maindronia neotropicalis, inhabiting the Chilean Atacama desert, is 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 await formal description.

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External links

• Systematics of family