@colinburgess @stojg Ah, that insane photo. I've seen that before. I expect that weasel was probably about as freaked out as the woodpecker.
Here's another moth hitch-hiker from the Boyle where I found my springtail. We often get pseudoscorpions riding in on the moths.
This moth had the misfortune of having a pseudoscorpion hanging onto its face.
Sometimes a moth is more than it seems.
I looked twice at this moth photo I was uploading to #iNaturalist. There was an orange spot on one wing. A parasitic mite?
No! It's a globular springtail!
I'm not sure if it hitched a ride into the moth light on this moth or came in on another insect.
springtail: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756456
moth: https://inaturalist.nz/observations/341756462
Why a #mite of the #Parasitidae (#Mesostigmata), apparently genus #Parasitellus, seemingly attacks moth #Pyrausta #despicata (Crambidae). Parasitellus develops in #bumblebee #nests and uses them for dispersal (#phoresy) to other nests, thus they leave their hosts on blossoms and wait for new hosts to be carried to new nests. The moth was detected by the mite as a #nonsuitable #phoretic #host.
© #StefanFWirth #Berlin 2025
Visit my new YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC19Fmf1URVl6
Photos
©S.F. Wirth
When #animals #carry other organisms: If it is a regular dispersal strategy it can be #phoresy. When phoretic #mites, such as soil mite #Histiostoma sp. (#Astigmata) here, disperse #fungi themselves, this can be hyperphoresy. The mating adult mites in my #SEM carry #macroconidia, presumably of Ascomycota. Adult mites aren't the phoretic stage, thus they can disperse a fungus only within their limited #habitat.
©#StefanFWirth Berlin 2025
Reference
S. F. Wirth (2023)
https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/GSP/GSOIL4N/GSOIL4N-Posters/ID_167.pdf
#Arachtober 19: one of my favourite finds this year, a hister beetle (family Histeridae) carrying several phoretic (hitchhiking) Uropodina mites attached via "anal pedicels", tough but stretchy stalks formed from special secretions from glands in…well, you can probably guess where. The mites are harmless to the beetle and use it to disperse to new habitats.
More on phoresy in Uropodina: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2288847 
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Uropodina
#MiteMonday: spotted this absolutely tiny wasp on the path by the tracks behind Fort York. It was only later when looking at the photos that I realized it had a mite passenger! Astigmata, maybe?
#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/235406415
And for the wasp if anyone can narrow it down: https://www.inaturalist.ca/observations/235405898 
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #wasps #phoresy • #Acari #Hymenoptera
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
What the ever-loving shit. Tagging @futurebird because ants and NYC https://inaturalist.ca/observations/215363522
#Lemon #tree #Citrus × #limon, its fruits, their insecticidal effect, about tree-#endophytic #organisms (#microbiota) and the rotting #fruits as #habitats for #phoretic #mites (#Histiostomatidae). #Ecology, #phoresy, #phoresis, #soil, #decomposition
© #StefanFWirth Berlin2024
My #blog on #biologe + #literature:
wp.me/p2l6XU-1TF
Photos 2+3: details of small #lemontree from plant trade Berlin, 1: #Histiostoma sp. (H. #feroniarum-complex) from lemons in #Sorrento (#Italy,2006) © S. F. Wirth 2024
Don't you hate it when you pop down to your favourite flower for a refreshing sip of nectar, only to get a pseudoscorpion stuck to your face?
Freeloading floral hitchhikers!
Student Dustin Lamont found this pseudoscorpion attached to the probscis of the native NZ moth Pseudocoremia lupinata, on our ecology field trip to the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre in the Southern Alps last week.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/198463770
#LinconUniversityNZ #insects #phoresy #pseudoscorpion #arachnid #nz #nature
Jon Sullivan
Stefan F. Wirth
neville park
