Got a real corker for you all this #MiteMonday! Found this hister beetle (family Histeridae) covered in odd filaments, a few with shiny round brown things attached to the ends.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "It's some kind of fungus, like _Cordyceps_"—you're thinking of _Ophiocordyceps_, it got reclassified—"or _Hesperomyces virescens_ on ladybugs." But Experience Hath Shewn me that it's almost never fungus.

That round, flattened shape had my inner voice going "Uropodina!" And it was right. I had thought these phoretic (hitchhiking) mites always anchored themselves flush to their host with their trademark anal pedicels™, but it turns out some excrete pedicels that are quite long and stalk-like, like this. For more information see this recent #OpenAccess paper, particularly Fig. 1: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2288847  

#iNaturalist observation: https://inaturalist.ca/observations/221274565  

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel #Acari #Uropodina