Fight footage: upside-down flip!
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#MiteMonday: paid an impromptu visit to my usual mite tree down by the lake! Things are busy. Saw some fighting, although much of it was over food (dead bugs).
These are sumo mites (_Allothrombium_), in the red velvet mite family (a Trombidiidae).
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Since the previous post is doing numbers*, here's a very brief scuffle which is the best I was able to capture.
For those who haven't read the classic 1960 paper ( 
https://doi.org/10.4039/Ent92898-12, 
https://sci-hub.box/10.4039/Ent92898-12 )—I do not know whether this is the same species, but the behaviour is similar enough—a male stakes out a patch on some surface a few centimetres square and patrols it, drumming on the ground with his front legs. Other males wander in and if they manage to locate each other (they seem quite blind and basically need to run into each other), they fight one-on-one; the "defender" (my term) doesn't follow them far beyond his patch. At some point he decides to deposit a spermatophore on the ground. Females (who are noticeably larger and fatter) do not seem to concern themselves with the whole thing; they may be nearby, or not. An interested female and male walk round each other in circles tapping each other, and presumably after a while she may pick up the spermatophore to fertilize her eggs. More than this, I don't know.
* "numbers": more than 1 boost and 2 likes
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Mite fight!
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#DailyMiteVid: whirligig mites (family Anystidae) are happy to eat each other, as you can see from this clip filmed today. I noticed that the mite being eaten seemed to still be alive and moving its limbs; it was only on re-watching the video that I realized it seemed to be cleaning one of its legs!
CW: slightly shaky video moving in & out of focus; mite being altogether too chill about being devoured alive by its fellow
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The sidewalk mites (_Balaustium_) that swarm over the ground this time of year primarily eat pollen, but they will also scavenge dead bugs (I do not think they are actually predatory). This horde has found an ant pupa, I think?
I am fascinated by this behaviour and try to catch it at least once every summer.
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Flipped over a piece of log on a big dead stump and there were tons of those little iridescent blue-purple springtails, but also several mesostigs. I was watching them hoping one would catch a springtail, and one seemed to be questing about for something. Then it chased after one of the other mites, flung itself on its back, and after some tumbling around ended up clinging to its underside. Then, this. I'm not even sure what's happening, I don't even know what appendages these mites use for sperm transfer.
edit: oh yeah I forgot to add they're totally having sex
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10 seconds of mite sex why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I can't even wait for #MiteMonday, this is too exciting, I have to share it now!!!
In Walter & Proctor's _Mites: Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour: Life at a Microscale_, there's this great image of mites in the family Acaridae mating, with the male facing backwards and his aedeagus (dick) inserted into the female's dorsal copulatory opening (bussy [back pussy]), so he is carried along on her back, a bit like a wheelbarrow race, but backwards.
Anyway this evening I was idly taking macro of the mites in the fruit fly culture when I SAW IT. It's easier to make out with video.
marked nsfw for graphic photos and videos of mite sex, you were warned
#Mitestodon #DailyMiteVid #arachnids #mites #MiteBehaviour • #Acari #Acariformes #Acaridae
#Arachtober 23: from June, a long-legged velvet mite (family Erythraeidae) climbs into a silk retreat over the exuvia (molted exoskeleton) of the jumping spider (family Salticidae) that previously occupied it. This is not the first time I have seen mites using old spider retreats for shelter!
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #MiteBehaviour #DailySpiderPic #SpidersOfMastodon #JumpingSpiders #spiders • #Acari #Acariformes #Erythraeidae #Araneae #Salticidae
neville park