Sunday, October 23, 2011

Hitchhikers


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:

  1. Fascinating Phil. Can't say I've ever noticed that so I will have to keep a lookout.

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  2. I will have to look more closely....as always these are fascinating.

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  3. Hi John, quite a few seem to be plagued by these mites, especially late in the season..

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  4. Add a bit of colour, don't they Adrian...

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