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
#Arachtober #MiteMonday: just a good old red velvet mite (_Allothrombium_).
Just imagine having a guinea pig-sized one, as a pet. It would be soft and squishy. It would enjoy squeezing into little crevices to nap. You could brush it, very gently. It wouldn't see very well. It could climb up things with little retractable claws. You could probably feed it mealworms.
#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Parasitengona #Trombidiidae
Little red mites of spring!
- A larval sidewalk mite (_Balaustium_) eating pollen
- A young whirligig mite (family Anystidae) eating clover mite eggs (the little reddish balls)
- Sumo mites (_Allothrombium_) wrestling
- and lastly, a clover mite (_Bryobia_), which isn't really that red when full grown but which all of the other mites are frequently misidentified as. They won't be out much longer, they go dormant in the hot months.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Erythraeidae #Anystidae #Trombidiidae #Tetranychidae #Bryobiinae
#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
During this recent spate of warmish weather I've been checking my go-to sumo mite (_Allothrombium_) trees. It's still too early for a dense population, but there are definitely a few out and about!
Here's an earlier video I took of sumo mites wrestling: https://youtu.be/qZ0Ml6VXujg
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #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
#Arachtober 15: an _Allothrombium_ red velvet mite I found recently. I'd never noticed one missing legs before. This one is missing the front two left legs!
This is an adult. I wonder if mites can regenerate legs between molts like spiders? It's complicated by the fact that many mites have distinct life stages and can change a lot in both body and lifestyle between molts, they don't just get bigger. Should look this up…
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Trombidiidae
#MiteMonday: went back to my "sumo mite tree" by the lake a couple weeks ago. Their season is well over, but I still found a few wandering around.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae
Recent arachnid lifers & rarities
It recently occurred to me that I first got into spiders around 2013 or 2014, which means that, unbelievably, I have been spidering for ten years. I mostly go to the same sites and recognize most of the spiders and mites I see, so I have gotten more interested in observing their behaviour rather than trying to identify them. But every now and then I do come across some that are totally new to me, or ones that I only see rarely. Here's some of the "lifers" and rarities I've come across this [...]
https://nevillepark.ca/2024/05/15/recent-arachnid-lifers-rarities/
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