Peak Anystid is over in my building's garden, but down by the lake yesterday I found plenty of them on burdock plants infested with aphids, which they prey on. Fast and nimble, they were able to steer clear of the feisty _Myrmica rubra_ farming the aphids.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Anystidae
They're not the only mites that subsist on aphids—many populations were also parasitized by larval Parasitengona, a large group that includes red velvet mites, long-legged velvet mites, water mites, etc. (They can't really be ID'd at this stage, and there are many possibilities.) Level of parasitism ranged from a single aphid with one tiny mite on it to populations that were more mite than aphid!
(The mite in this photo is a bit on the larger side? They get much, much smaller and only a little bit bigger.)
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Parasitengona #parasitism
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