#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
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
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
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).
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
neville park
Colin Purrington
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Sabine