Lmst

I almost forgot it was #MiteMonday! From under one of my reliable dead logs just a few days ago, a mesostig with its prey, a tiny white springtail; a slug for scale; and a smaller, paler mesostig crossing paths with another springtail (which it did not try to eat).

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #springtails #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Collembola #Poduromorpha

A teardrop-shaped red-brown mite with a small translucent white thing in its mouthparts. It could be mistaken for an ant pupa but I promise it's a springtail.

The same mite and its prey are dwarfed by a small slug also on the underside of the log.

Another white springtail, this one identifiable as a poduromorph, comes face-to-face with a light brown mesostig only a little longer than itself. The mite's front pair of legs are long and thin, used a bit like antennae.

The first #MiteMonday in a while! The wet dead leaves are a bountiful source of predatory mesostigmatid mites.

#Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata

A teardrop-shaped reddish-brown mite on a golden-brown leaf. Its long thin front legs are reaching out in front of it.

A blurry photo of a different mite, this one with a gap between the red-brown plates covering the top and bottom of its body, leaving a crescent of white cuticle visible. It's booking it across the surface of a dead log.

Yet another mesostig at the edge of a dead leaf.

Gotta post something for the last #MiteMonday of the year. Here's some mesostigs (family Parasitidae or thereabouts?), predators of the undergrowth, making their way across alien landscapes of fungus and leaf litter on the underside of a dead log.

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

A small teardrop-shaped red-brown mite with thick, claw-like second legs and long thin antenna-like first legs crosses a velvety mat of fungus towards a wet dead leaf.

A similar-looking mite (you can see the differences in the legs better from this angle) on a broad, cratered and rippled mat of fungus with variegated patches of beige, yellow-brown, and dark brown, with black specks all over. There are no other visible large lifeforms.

#MiteMonday: checked out my favourite dead logs, got more pictures of mesostigs preying on springtails!!

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Parasitidae???

A somewhat flattened teardrop-shaped red-brown mite on a wet dead log surrounded by a flat sea of velvety fungus. It's holding a tiny white springtail in its mouthparts, with several other springtails of the same kind around it.

On a pale dead log, a teardrop-shaped golden-brown mite carries a faintly purple springtail in its mouthparts.

Thrilling moment today. I had flipped a log and was trying (with limited success) to get in-focus photos of this mesostigmatid mite when a tiny springtail ran directly into its path. To my surprise the mite seized it immediately and then, antenniform front legs aloft, hurried off looking for somewhere safe to consume its prize.

I knew, of course, that mesostigs like this were predatory; I'd just never witnessed the actual predating!

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

Slightly out-of-focus shot of a shiny, teardrop-shaped golden-brown mite on the wet, muddy underside of a (flipped) log. The springtail is the small elongated white blob on the other side of the tiny hillock of mud.

Even more out-of-focus photo of the mite, with the white blob of the springtail right in its path.

The mite seizes the springtail with its pedipalps and thin long first pair of legs. (The springtail's head is on the right side.)

The mite hurries off. Its front pair of legs are used like antennae to feel its way. You can see its short chelicerae and thin pedipalps clutching the springtail.

I decided to go back and see if I could find that beetle again and get more pictures, and I did!! While these beetles have potent chemical defenses in the form of caustic oil they secrete, this one was quite placid and let me get up close with the clip-on phone lenses, even crawling onto my hand at one point.

The mite mostly stayed under the beetle's chin, but occasionally ran around its head.

A passerby asked what I was looking at and I am afraid I was not the best or most observant conversationalist, as I was busy taking all the pictures I could get, but he seemed familiar with the concept of phoretic mites at least, and remarked that perhaps the mites gained some benefit or protection from the beetle's secretions.

This BugGuide observation <https://bugguide.net/node/view/31709> seems similar?

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #bugstodon #insects #beetles • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Coleoptera #Meloidae

The oil beetle chewing on a blade of grass. The golden-brown mite is climbing towards the back of its head, lit by the sun.

Somewhat blurry close-up of the mite crawling around on the side of the beetle's head, with one stretched-out rear leg near the beetle's eye.

Close-up of the beetle clinging to a dead oak leaf brightly lit by the sun. The mite, outlined in reflected light, is under its chin. It has the typical mesostig flattened body with not particularly long legs.

Close-up of the beetle chewing on grass, with the mite seen from the side and a little behind, its legs translucent in the light. Its second pair of legs are a little stouter than the others and the first pair perhaps a little thinner, but the differences are less pronounced than in other mesostigs I've seen, where the first legs are practically antenniform and the second pair are much thicker, more distinctly curved, and even have spurs or other sticky-outy bits (scientific term).

The best thing I saw today. On and around Hawk Hill, the low hill near the café, several beautiful large _Meloe_ oil beetles were voraciously eating green vegetation. These were a prize all on their own and I took pictures of all of them. Later, at the café, I was going over the photos when I noticed one of them had something on its face!! A phoretic mesostigmatid mite!!!!!

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #mites #bugstodon #insects #beetles • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Coleoptera #Meloidae

#Parasitiformes

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