#arachtober — Public Fediverse posts

#Arachtober 20: a tiny oribatid or beetle mite, likely suborder Mixonomata (https://bugguide.net/node/view/238862), ubiquitous dwellers of soil and leaf litter, armoured decomposers.

#ArthroBeauty #MiteMonday #DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Oribatida #Mixonomata

It's another #Arachtober #MiteMonday! Here's a whirligig mite (family Anystidae) cleaning its feet. Warning: handheld video! I was able to stabilize it a bit but the camera still moves around.

#ArthroBeauty #DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Anystidae

#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 5: the last order of arachnids I have found, pseudoscorpions! They look kind of like scorpions without tails; they are found basically everywhere on earth but Antarctica, but they are absolutely tiny and live in places like under tree bark, under rocks and logs, in leaf litter, etc., so you will rarely see them unless you're looking for them. Sometimes they can be found clinging to the legs of larger flying insects with their little claws, or indoors eating booklice and other tiny household insects.

The ones in my garden are so small you might take them for mesostigmatid mites at first glance. This one has captured a soil-dwelling mite of some kind.

#iNaturalist observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/99203146 :inaturalist:

#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #pseudoscorpions #Pseudoscorpiones #Cthoniidae

#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 :inaturalist:

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

#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 :inaturalist:

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

#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 :inaturalist:

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

#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 :inaturalist:

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

#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 :inaturalist:

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

#Arachtober 28: the last #MiteMonday of Arachtober! On a rock teeming with clover mites I found several of their frequent predators, whirligig mites (family Anystidae). This one was busy cleaning its feet.

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae

#Arachtober 21: Happy #MiteMonday! Here's a snout mite (family Bdellidae) snacking on a long-legged velvet mite (family Erythraeidae). Taken back in June.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Acariformes #Prostigmata #Bdellidae #Erythraeidae

#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 :OpenAccess:

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Uropodina

#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 :OpenAccess:

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Uropodina

#Arachtober 7: this mesostig's bristly, pointy face kind of reminds me of a hedgehog. Although similar in colour and body shape, it seems a bit more…rugged than the ones I normally see? More matte and spiky.

#MiteMonday #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata

#Arachtober 2: I wonder how long I can go without posting a spider? This is a pseudoscorpion from my yard. These bizarre-looking but harmless arachnids live all over the world, but unless you're looking for them you might never see them. They live in caves and under rocks and leaf litter and tree bark and such, and the largest in the world is only about a centimetre long.

#ArthroBeauty #arachnids #pseudoscorpions • #Pseudoscorpiones #Chthoniidae