#Arachtober 28: clover mite (_Bryobia_) in a bright patch of lichen.
#ArthroBeauty #LichenSubscribe #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #CloverMites #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Tetranychidae #Bryobiinae
#Arachtober 25: now for something entirely different, a penthaleid mite (https://bugguide.net/node/view/263374) feeding on a dandelion leaf. Species like the common _P. major_ (which this probably is) have a #DorsalAnus and excrete these globules as they feed, often hanging upside down on the undersides of leaves or vertically on blades of grass.
(If you think a dorsal anus is wild, certain astig females have secondary dorsal genital openings for copulation.)
#ArthroBeauty #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Penthaleidae
#Arachtober #MiteMonday: just a good old red velvet mite (_Allothrombium_).
Just imagine having a guinea pig-sized one, as a pet. It would be soft and squishy. It would enjoy squeezing into little crevices to nap. You could brush it, very gently. It wouldn't see very well. It could climb up things with little retractable claws. You could probably feed it mealworms.
#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Parasitengona #Trombidiidae
#Arachtober 4: March mating mesostig madness!
These are an ubiquitous sort of soil-dwelling predatory mites, likely in the family Parasitidae (ironically, primarily predators) in the order Mesostigmata in the superorder Parasitiformes. They are only very distantly related to the whirligig mite I posted the other day, which is in superorder Acariformes. While the two superorders are traditionally grouped together under Acari, it is likely they don't share a common ancestor and should be treated separately. So I'm counting them as a different group!
#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/275521159 
Some pro-level photos and info about mesostigs: https://www.chaosofdelight.org/all-about-mites-mesostigmata
#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #mites #MiteSex #taxonomy #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Parasitidae
A more top-down view. The mite in front has a pale gap between the red-brown shields or plates that cover the top and bottom half of its body, like a sandwich. It is a common mesostig feature.
On the underside of a piece of rotting wood are two glossy, teardrop-shaped red-brown mites, one upside down and clinging to the other with its legs. These mites' first pair of legs are thin and somewhat elongated, and they use them much like antennae.
Let's kick off #Arachtober with some fall colours! This beautiful coppery jumping spider—_Eris rufa_, maybe, or _Pelegrina_?—reminded me of autumn leaves. Tried to get an even closer pic of its iridescent scales.
#ArthroBeauty #DailySpiderPic #spiders #JumpingSpiders #Araneae #Salticidae
Close-up shot from above. The jumping spider's dark head is covered in short, fine, pale hairs. Its brown abdomen is covered with many small flat scale-like hairs that produce a pastel iridescence, like those "holo" highlight pressed powders that were a popular makeup trend a while back.
A jumping spider on pine bark, seen from slightly above, its robust first pair of legs partly raised. It has a shiny copper-coloured abdomen, red-brown legs banded with a more golden brown (a sort of tortoiseshell colour scheme), and a black-brown head with a broad white band along each side. The tops of the pedipalps, too, are white.
#Arachtober 2: anystid renaissance! Commonly called whirligig mites for their constant frantic and erratic running, these large (~1 mm*) predatory mites in the family Anystidae have a population boom in early to mid-June and seem to increase in numbers again in autumn, at least around here. They eat aphids, small midges, each other, etc. This one seems to be eating some kind of barklouse (Psocodea)?
* Given that many mites are microscopic, any mite one can clearly see with the naked eye counts as "large".
#ArthroBeauty #LichenSubscribe #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Anystidae
