Fight footage: upside-down flip!
#bugstodon #MiteMonday #RedVelvetMites #MiteBehaviour #mites #Acari #Acariformes #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
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
#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #mites #RedVelvetMites #SumoMites #MiteBehaviour #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae
Mite fight!
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #RedVelvetMites #SumoMites #MiteBehaviour #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae
#MiteMonday: this weekend I got out to my sumo mite (_Allothrombium_) tree to catch some wrestling bouts!
It is some kind of sexual competition thing: certain males seem to stake out a little patch and aggressively defend it against all comers. The females, I think, are the larger ones who take little notice of the fights and mostly wedge themselves into crevices in bark? Courtship rituals seem to involve leg-tapping and walking around each other in circles. I am wildly curious about what's actually going on.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites #SumoMites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Trombidiidae
#MiteMonday: a red velvet mite (_Allothrombium_) sneakily snacks on midges from a spider's web. I also saw a red-winged blackbird eating a midge-filled spiderweb, too. At this time of year, the few spiders that overwintered catch so many midges that their webs almost collapse under the weight—more than they could possibly eat. I wonder how much midge biomass these spiders inadvertently make available to other animals!
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Trombidiidae
Red velvet mites (family Trombidiidae) seem to have retractable claws at the ends of their soft, stubby legs. They're barely big enough for me to get a photo of but I'm obsessed with them.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites • #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae
#MiteMonday: stopped by Trinity-Bellwoods today and was delighted to find that, despite the frosty ground, there were still red velvet mites (_Allothrombium_) out and about!
Bonus "accidental front camera" selfie. (POV: you're a red velvet mite)
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites #Acari #Trombidiidae #macro
#MiteMonday continued: the mite decided to disembark by going between the aphid's cornicles, the two spikes sticking up from its butt, but found it a tight squeeze! It did manage to get off though. It briefly sat beside the aphid before wandering off.
This'll go up on iNaturalist 
when I've gotten through my photo backlog. But if anyone on here can provide more insight, I'm all ears! (2/2)
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #MiteBehaviour #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites #Acari #Trombidiidae #macro
For #MiteMonday, I saw this interesting interaction between a red velvet mite and an aphid the other day!
I've seen *larval* red velvet mites parasitizing aphids—latched on like ticks—and I've seen adult red velvet mites preying on aphids, but it looked like this small but adult red velvet mite was parasitizing the aphid??
After I took the first picture the mite started to climb off the aphid, showing it was clearly old enough to be free-living. (1/2)
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #MiteBehaviour #arachnids #mites #RedVelvetMites #Acari #Trombidiidae #macro
neville park