These clades were formerly considered suborders, but this does not allow for a sufficiently precise classification of the mites and is abolished in more modern treatments; the Endeostigmata are variously considered to form a suborder on their own (the old view) or are included mainly in the Sarcoptiformes, thus making both groups monophyletic.

[2] Another group often mentioned is the Actinedida, but in treatments like the present one, this is split up between the Sarcoptiformes (and formerly the separate Endeostigmata) and Trombidiformes (which contains the bulk of the "Actinedida"), because it appears to be a massively paraphyletic "wastebin taxon", uniting all Acariformes that are not "typical" Oribatida and Astigmatina.

The delimitation and interrelationships of these groups are entirely unclear; while most analyses find one of the latter two, but not the other to be a subgroup of the Anystina; neither of these mutually contradicting hypotheses is very robust; possibly this is a simple error because phylogenetic software usually fails in handling nondichotomous phylogenies.

All of the most important plant pests among the Acari are trombidiformans, such as spider mites (Tetranychidae) and Eriophyidae.

[8] However, within the super order Acariformes, parthenogenetic species have arisen numerous times during the course of evolution.

[8] In some parthenogenetic species that undergo automixis (a kind of self-fertilization that retains meiosis) sexual reproduction has re-emerged.