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The family Davacaridae is shown to consist of at least two genera ( Davacarus Hunter, Acanthodavacarus n. gen.) and four species that are distributed from subantarctic islands ( D . gressetti Hunter) to Tasmania ( D . reginaldi n. sp.), and to mainland Australia ( D . lindquisti n. sp., A . klompeni n. sp.) at least as far north as the subtropical rainforests of south-east Queensland. These mites share a number of striking synapomorphies including the paedomorphic retention of the deutonymphal pattern of sclerotized plates in the adult, a secondary thickening of the cuticle around those plates and a lateral cheliceral excrescence that adheres to the cheliceral teeth. Species of Davacarus have lost the pregenital shield, have an intricate endogynium and four pairs of large, sessile opisthosomal glands; species of Acanthodavacarus have a pregenital shield with a pair of setae and two pairs of hypertrophied opisthosomal glands on short horn-like protrusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]