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#parasitidae — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #parasitidae, aggregated by home.social.

  1. #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: inaturalist.org/observations/2 :inaturalist:

    Some pro-level photos and info about mesostigs: chaosofdelight.org/all-about-m

    #ArthroBeauty #arachnids #mites #MiteSex #taxonomy #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Parasitidae

  2. 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:
    youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC1

    Photos
    ©S.F. Wirth

  3. 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:
    youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC1

    Photos
    ©S.F. Wirth

  4. 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:
    youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC1

    Photos
    ©S.F. Wirth

  5. 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:
    youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC1

    Photos
    ©S.F. Wirth

  6. 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:
    youtu.be/gRAT7CIKWTk?si=hb2LC1

    Photos
    ©S.F. Wirth