Visual guide to pests of mason bees. #InsectHotel #BeeHotel #bees #insects #osmia #wasps #mites #parasites https://extension.psu.edu/enemies-of-mason-bees
#NewSpecies!
New water mite from #china just swam in:
Atractides cardiacus
Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0396422E-FFE2-FF89-FE29-871A827AF68C
Publication: https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.976.2775
#ejtaxonomy #AtractidesCardiacus
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #invertebrates #arachnology #arachnids #acarology #acari #mites #watermite
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).
Naturally occurring variation in gene-associated transposable elements impacts gene expression and phenotypic diversity in woodland strawberry.
#Transposons #MITEs #WoodlandStrawberry #Fragariavesca #PlantScience #Preprint
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644342v1
Interesting:
"Varroa mites originally evolved to parasitize Apis cerana, the honey bee species native to Asia, and only affected drones of that species. When Varroa mites infect worker brood in Asian bees, the larva dies and the Varroa mite can’t reproduce."
"As they adapted to the honey bees (Apis mellifera) common in Europe and North America, however, Varroa mites became able to parasitize drone, queen, or worker bees. However, there is a still a large preference for drone brood. Varroa mites are often 5–10 times more abundant in drone brood cells than worker or queen cells. Since drones take longer to mature into adults and the drone brood are bigger, the Varroa mites can produce more offspring in these cells. By removing excess drone brood, a beekeeper can eliminate a large portion of their Varroa mite population."
During this recent spate of warmish weather I've been checking my go-to sumo mite (_Allothrombium_) trees. It's still too early for a dense population, but there are definitely a few out and about!
Here's an earlier video I took of sumo mites wrestling: https://youtu.be/qZ0Ml6VXujg
Genetic basis of camouflage in an alpine plant and its long-term co-evolution with an insect herbivore.
#Transposons #MITEs #Anthocyanin #Coevolution
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02653-3
The genome awakens: transposon-mediated gene regulation.
#Transposons #MITEs #GeneExpression #Review
https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/fulltext/S1360-1385(25)00039-1
Flipped over a piece of log on a big dead stump and there were tons of those little iridescent blue-purple springtails, but also several mesostigs. I was watching them hoping one would catch a springtail, and one seemed to be questing about for something. Then it chased after one of the other mites, flung itself on its back, and after some tumbling around ended up clinging to its underside. Then, this. I'm not even sure what's happening, I don't even know what appendages these mites use for sperm transfer.
edit: oh yeah I forgot to add they're totally having sex
The first #MiteMonday in a while! The wet dead leaves are a bountiful source of predatory mesostigmatid mites.
#MiteMonday: wintertime rock flipping turned up some penthaleids and those iridescent purple springtails, not quite sure what they are. They were about the same size (see third photo).
Mapping #Antarctica's hidden ice-free lands: A blueprint for conservation https://phys.org/news/2025-01-antarctica-hidden-ice-free-blueprint.html paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-04424-y
"The ice-free lands are home to uniquely adapted flora including micro-forests of #lichens, #moss, and two flowering plants, Antarctic hairgrass and pearlwort. They also sustain a variety of #mites, #springtails, #tardigrades, #nematodes, #algae, and #microbes. #Seabirds have established breeding colonies in these areas too."
New entry of AI-generated #comics and #jokes added to our #website:
#Hummingbird #Mites and #Hitchhiking
comics.lucentinian.com/3758
#AIGeneratedJokes #DailyComedy #VisitUsNow #Laughs #Comedy
Hummingbird flower #mites found to use #electroreception to hitch rides on #hummingbirds between flowers https://phys.org/news/2025-01-hummingbird-mites-electroreception-hitch-hummingbirds.html
Electric transportation and electroreception in hummingbird flower mites https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2419214122
"for a mite to catch a ride, all it needed to do was move a few steps closer to the arriving #hummingbird. Once it landed, it would remain in the #bird's nostrils to prevent being blown off as the bird flew. It could then jump down onto a flower as the hummingbird fed"
@FotoVorschlag
#FotoVorschlag
'rauf und runter'
rauf und dann tatsächlich auch wieder runter klettern diese milben von dem schwarzhörnigen totengräber, die befallen den nämlich nicht wirklich sondern kapern ihn 'nur' als taxi zum nächsten fund aas
New blog post: my top 10 favourite arachnid observations from June onwards! Lifers, rare sightings, and more. Plus, one of my favourite Odyssey passages. https://nevillepark.ca/2025/01/01/arachnid-summer-fall-highlights/
If you missed my earlier post covering January to May 2024, find it here: https://nevillepark.ca/2024/05/15/recent-arachnid-lifers-rarities/
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
#MiteMonday: checked out my favourite dead logs, got more pictures of mesostigs preying on springtails!!
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites • #Acari #Parasitiformes #Mesostigmata #Parasitidae???
There's a tiny native mite in NZ, about 1/10 mm long, called Eriophyes totarae, that only feeds on the buds of male tōtara trees.
I learned about them this month when Rene, a PhD student at #LincolnUniversityNZ studying tōtara seed and seedling ecology, asked me what the aborted buds were on a tōtara branch. We looked it up and learned of these tiny mites.
I've since found some in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city.
