Simple SummaryThis study investigated the picobiine mites parasitising African barbets. The results showed that this bird family is more widely infested by feather mites than previously thought, with three species of the genusTanopicobiafound on ten African barbet species. Birds belonging to the family Lybiidae have a unique parasite fauna consisting exclusively of mites from the genusTanopicobia, which is restricted solely to African barbets. Based on the distribution of the genusTanopicobiaon the studied barbet hosts, our results also provide indirect cues that the host genusTrachyphonus, attributed to such different avian families, e.g., Capitonidae, Ramphastidae, is part of the family Lybiidae, whereas other/related bird families have their own distinct quill mite fauna.AbstractIn this study, we conducted a parasitological investigation of the quill mite fauna of the subfamily Picobiinae (Acariformes: Prostigmata: Syringophilidae) associated with African barbets (Aves: Piciformes: Lybiidae). We examined twenty-seven host species, representing 57% of the forty-seven known host species in the family Lybiidae, belonging to seven genera (70% of the ten genera in the family). Our research revealed that ten host species were infested by three species of picobiine mites belonging to the genusTanopicobia: (1)Tanopicobia hallaeSikora and Skoracki, sp. n., from three species of the genusLybiusand two species of the genusTricholaema, (2)Tanopicobia stactolaemaSikora and Skoracki, sp. n., from two species of the genusStactolaema, and (3)Tanopicobia trachyphoniSkoracki et al., 2020, collected from three host species of the genusTrachyphonus. Our findings demonstrate that birds belonging to the family Lybiidae have a specific parasite fauna consisting exclusively of mites of the genusTanopicobia; this mite genus is apparently restricted to African barbets.