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


#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