#MiteMonday: _Balaustium_ sidewalk mites eating pollen (a fallen tulip anther I placed there for them).

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Erythraeidae

#MiteMonday: an oribatid mite, a slow-moving detritivore with hard, shell-like armour. This one was manoeuvring around some spider silk. I have the feeling it's one of those ones whose name ends in -zetes? @frankashwood would have a better idea.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Oribatida

#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).

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #RedVelvetMites #MiteBehaviour #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae

#MiteMonday: A delightful surprise at the pines at the very southeast corner of Trinity-Bellwoods! These spiky little anystoid mites, which I *suspect* are Erythracaridae, were racing up and down the trunks and hiding under the edges of the flakes of bark.

(These chunky pines—not white pine; red pine or jack pine or something like that—have bark with large flat flakes, unlike the more open and vertical furrows in the bark of willows, oak, etc. There are certain arachnids that seem to be particularly associated with these pines, like _Eris floridana_, _Tutelina harti_, and Opiliones when they are very big, and I guess the microhabitats formed by the bark may be why.)

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Anystoidea #Erythracaridae

The triumphant return of #MiteMonday!

Spotted this unusually reddish penthaleid mite on a decaying tree stump. Note the small pale #DorsalAnus on its back towards the rear of the abdomen.

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Penthaleidae

Still the depths of winter here. I have been having dreams about bugs. I recently had a dream about finding plump whirligig mites everywhere: some their usual orange-red, others greenish because they had just eaten something green…I miss the mites.

Here are some whirligig mites I found a couple of years ago on a rock down by the lake, fighting over a dead midge. #iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225382565  

#MiteMonday #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acariformes #Anystidae

Been a long time since I posted anything for #MiteMonday, but I was going through my camera and found this one I don't think I've shared before! Just a good old _Allothrombium_ red velvet mite.

#Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Trombidiidae

#MiteMonday: a tiny _Podocinum_ mite found under a rock. Its extremely thin elongated front legs have forked hairs at the end, and it seems to use these legs like antennae to navigate.

Much better pictures here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/514391

#Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Podocinidae