Accelerating universes with scaling dark matter

Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with a presently large fraction of the energy density stored in an X-component with w(X) < -1/3, are considered. We find all the critical points of the system for constant equations of state in that range. We consider further several background quantities that can distinguish the models with different mx values. Using a simple toy model with a varying equation of state, we show that even a large variation of w(X) at small redshifts is very difficult to observe with d(L)(z) measurements up to z <similar to> 1 Therefore, it will require accurate measurements in the range 1 < z < 2 and independent accurate knowledge of Omega (m,0) (and/or Omega (X),0) in order to resolve a variable w(X) from a constant w(X).