Lmst

#MiteMonday: your regular dose of sumo mite shenanigans.

I think the larger one may be a female? The aggressive mites don't try to fight it.

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium

it's over anakin, i have the high ground

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #MiteBehaviour

Saturday night's all right for (sumo mite) fighting

edit: you can also see much smaller clover mites (_Bryobia_) moving around in the periphery. They are the bluish ones with threadlike pink-orange legs. That is their full size. For comparison, the sumo mites are like 4mm tops?

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #MiteBehaviour

That Lady and the Tramp scene with the spaghetti, but it's these sumo mites (_Allothrombium_) feeding on a dead midge (family Chironomidae).

Also later they started fighting, but I'm not sure if they were fighting over the midge or just regular sumo mite fighting.

#DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #MiteBehaviour

Got a lot of fighting sumo mite (_Allothrombium_) video/pics today!

In this pic you can see how the mites' pedipalps have little claws or thumbs on the end. Arachnid pedipalps are (of course) modified legs, the same appendages as scorpion and pseudoscorpion pincers, amblypygids' thorny elbowed claws, etc. In female spiders they are kind of like "hands", simple short feelers/holders, but in mature male spiders the various parts that would have been leg bits are repurposed to become highly elaborate sperm transfer organs. APPENDAGES!

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #macro

Two red velvet mites grapple with each other on an outcrop of bark. A third is in the background, out of focus.

Close-up crop of the previous photo. One mite's pedipalps can be seen in greater detail, showing small "thumbs" on the ends, like tiny little crab claws.

This #MiteMonday, come face-to-face with a sumo mite (_Allothrombium_). That gaze may seem piercing, but from their behaviour they seem to be quite blind.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #macro

A red velvet mite approaches the camera, tapping with its (out of focus) long first pair of legs. Its head, normally hard to see past the pillowy hump of its abdomen, is glossy and short-haired, with glowing raspberry-red eyes and protruding chelicerae.

#MiteMonday: Went to visit the Sumo Mite Tree today as it was slightly warmer than yesterday. There were plenty of mites, but unfortunately they were not really in a fightin' mood, at least not before I got cold (I underdressed) and had to go back. I did capture this great flip takedown though.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium

A plump red sumo mite (Allothrombium) is flipped into the air by its sparring partner on a tree root.

The mite lands on its back, legs—robust but comically short for its size—splayed out.

The mite rolls onto its side as the other reaches for it with its long front legs.

The other mite lunges at it, palps raised and mouthparts out.

This one red velvet mite was very interested in a small insect pupa of some kind. https://youtu.be/TxRUAw3pqkA

#DailyMitePic #DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #RedVelvetMites #macro

Enjoy 1:45 of red velvet mites (Trombidiidae) bumbling around in the leaf litter while a band jams in the background and _Lasius_(?) ants industriously excavate.

https://youtu.be/x1Y6JqGuoBQ

#DailyMitePic #DailyMiteVid #Mitestodon #mites #Acari #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #RedVelvetMites #macro

To my surprise, last week I found some red velvet mites (_Allothrombium_) out and about, albeit very slow, at the roots of the river birch in Trinity-Bellwoods!

#DailyMitePic #Trombidiidae #Allothrombium #arachnids #mites #Mitestodon

#Allothrombium

Client Info