Harvestman spiders like this Mitopus morio turn up quite frequently in our garden at this time of year and quite a few of them carry these little scarlet parasitic spider mites - which apparently are mite larvae belong to a genus called Leptus - attached to their legs and body.
I really need to catch one of these and take a look under the microscope - at this magnification they just look like little blobs of red sealing wax.
You can see another kind of parasitic mite, on bumblebees, here
4 comments:
Fascinating Phil. Can't say I've ever noticed that so I will have to keep a lookout.
I will have to look more closely....as always these are fascinating.
Hi John, quite a few seem to be plagued by these mites, especially late in the season..
Add a bit of colour, don't they Adrian...
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