Some arachnids from today:

- young _Mangora_ orbweaver
- _Naphrys pulex_ (I think?), considering some kind of hymenopteran
- and most excitingly, Trombidiidae that aren't _Allothrombium_! I'm not quite sure whether they're both _Trombidium_, the first one is oddly not velvety at all but more rough-textured, and more flat than plump, like Smarididae if it were trombidiid-shaped. I am going to upload the pics to BugGuide to see what the experts say.

#DailySpiderPic #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #spiders #mites #Araneae #Araneidae #Salticidae #Acari #Acariformes #Parasitengona #Trombidiidae

#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

Mite fight!

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #RedVelvetMites #SumoMites #MiteBehaviour #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae

How poison #frogs built a chemical weapons system one step at a time https://phys.org/news/2026-04-poison-frogs-built-chemical-weapons.html

Experimental evidence supports gradual #evolution of alkaloid sequestration in poison frogs: Adriana Jeckel et al. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2067/20253144/480951/Experimental-evidence-supports-gradual-evolution

"toxins released by #PoisonFrogs, #alkaloids, are derived from their diet in the wild, consisting of specific #ants, #mites, #millipedes, & #beetles... the process developed gradually over time, with poison frogs slowly adapting to increasingly toxic diets"

Found my first Sumo Mites today, on a White Pine.
They were not fighting with each other though (like in the video posted by @nev).

#mites #macro

From yesterday: all species I've really only found on/immediately near those tall pine trees with red bark. The pretty yellow/gold/silver jumping spider _Eris floridana_; a tiny _Admestina_ jumping spider with a flattened, speckled body; and a mite from the family Erythracaridae (I'm calling it, I feel pretty sure).

I have found these even in rather bare, shabby, pissed-in areas that get a lot of human foot traffic, normally not a great place to find bugs!

Another kind of arachnid that seems to like the pine trees are opilionids, in the fall when they get big and mate.

#DailySpiderPic #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #spiders #JumpingSpiders #mites #Araneae #Salticidae #Acari #Acariformes #Erythracaridae

I also encountered something I'd never seen before. This spruce(?) tree had little red patches on it which turned out to be remarkable profusions of juvenile _Bryobia_ clover mites!

_Bryobia_ are in the spider mite family Tetranychidae, and I have seen photos of the silk-making spider mites, like gorse mites and two-spotted spider mites, aggregating like this on their webs. But the subfamily Bryobiinae does not make silk and until now I had never seen them swarm like this. They formed great piles staggering above the surface and as I watched one clump fell off entirely. I wonder if they are doing it to disperse, or what?

These mites are only active in cooler spring and fall periods and feed on soft greens like fresh grass (and, of course, clover), where I also saw some. Despite their huge numbers I have never seen them make noticeable cosmetic damage, though apparently it can happen. Honestly there are bigger problems in the world.

#Mitestodon #CloverMites #mites #arachnids #Acari #Tetranychidae #Bryobiinae