#MiteMonday: A delightful surprise at the pines at the very southeast corner of Trinity-Bellwoods! These spiky little anystoid mites, which I *suspect* are Erythracaridae, were racing up and down the trunks and hiding under the edges of the flakes of bark.

(These chunky pines—not white pine; red pine or jack pine or something like that—have bark with large flat flakes, unlike the more open and vertical furrows in the bark of willows, oak, etc. There are certain arachnids that seem to be particularly associated with these pines, like _Eris floridana_, _Tutelina harti_, and Opiliones when they are very big, and I guess the microhabitats formed by the bark may be why.)

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Anystoidea #Erythracaridae

RE: https://scicomm.xyz/@dantheclamman/116196703399022292

How do #animals #aggregate?#Mites can find each other based on #pheromones, while #sight is important for herd-forming #mammals. In #marine #habitats, #hearing plays a major role. D.McAfee et al.(2022) showed that #oyster #larvae react to the #soundscape of a healthy #reef via #statocysts in front of their bodies, thus finding their adult conspecifics for #reefformation. Reef formation can be artificially #stimulated via artificial #soundwaves.
©#StefanFWirth 2026
Ref
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.14307

The triumphant return of #MiteMonday!

Spotted this unusually reddish penthaleid mite on a decaying tree stump. Note the small pale #DorsalAnus on its back towards the rear of the abdomen.

#bugstodon #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Penthaleidae

went to the park and flipped a log which was in icy ankle-deep slush but still yielded the usuals.

#bugstodon #insects #springtails #beetles #mites #Mitestodon #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Coleoptera #Staphylinidae #Collembola #Entomobryomorpha #Hymenoptera

Anestèsic local en úlceres corneals

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Per aquest Menys és Més us portem un mite de la medicina d’urgències que hem consultat al llibre Myths in Emergency Medicine. El mite que volem desmentir és el que diu que els col·liris anestèsics no són segurs en les úlceres corneals

Aquest mite té el seu origen en casos publicats d’afectes adversos com queratitis o infeccions. Aquests casos es refereixen a l’ús abusiu, no prescrit d’aquests col·liris.

Doncs bé, s’han anat publicant articles que rebaten aquesta afirmació. Diversos estudis aleatoritzats han mostrat l’eficàcia i seguretat d’aquests col·liris, tots conclouen que no hi ha cap risc d’efectes adversos o retard en el guariment d’aquestes úlceres corneals simples.

És cert que aquests estudis exclouen aquelles úlceres amb característiques que podríem anomenar complicades, com la presentació més enllà de les 36 hores, la presència d’òxid o infecció o la patologia ocular prèvia. En tots els estudis s’administraven antibiòtics tòpics.

Per tant, podem prescriure als nostres pacients amb úlceres corneals simples l’aplicació de gotes de col·liri anestèsic de forma segura. Si fem cas d’aquests estudis es podrien aplicar, si ho necessiten, fins a una gota de col·liri cada mitja hora durant dos dies. Els nostres pacients ho agrairan.

Transcripció de l’àudio

Very small #mites are subject of my research as they are associated with other arthropods (#phoretic#dispersal), and even #influence the #microclimate in their #habitats in complex ways, by fungal #spore transport+chemical fungal growth regulation via own #fungicides. #Histiostoma #sapromyzarum is subject of my current#Behance project exploring it also #aestheticslly.

©#StefanFWirth

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Behance S F.Wirth
https://www.behance.net/gallery/244398767/Fragile-Transparency

Still the depths of winter here. I have been having dreams about bugs. I recently had a dream about finding plump whirligig mites everywhere: some their usual orange-red, others greenish because they had just eaten something green…I miss the mites.

Here are some whirligig mites I found a couple of years ago on a rock down by the lake, fighting over a dead midge. #iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/225382565  

#MiteMonday #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acariformes #Anystidae

A striking #character of adult #mites in #Histiostomatidae (#Astigmata) is a highly #sclerotized area on the upper surface of #proterosoma. Its #latticelike #structure forms a #taxonomically relevant #symmetrical #pattern of windows, for which I introduced a #nomenclature in my PhD thesis. This area is a site of #muscleorigins (see #SEM section through a bigger specimen of #Acaridae).
©#StefanFWirth 2026

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©S.F. Wirth edit 2026