#mites

Today I did my monthly biodiversity survey by bike along the Summit Road of the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. And, along it I found the first ever Canterbury record, and second South Island record, of the toatoa bud gall mite, *Aceria victoriae*. 😀 These native mites make distinctive galls on the NZ native plant, toatoa (*Haloragis erecta*). Yet, after they were described as a species from specimens collected in Wellington in 1956/57, nobody recorded them. That is, until Nicholas Martin found them in Auckland in 2012. Nicholas Martin put out the call for entomologists to look for them, yet only a few more were found, and all in Auckland. I looked and couldn't find them around Christchurch. Then, last year, Lisa Bennett on #iNaturalist found them in Wellington and Joseph Knight found them on Otago Peninsula. Inspired by their finds, I was looking carefully for them today and found one plant with the galls. It's a mystery why they've been so cryptic as their host plant is common. I think it underscores how little we still know about the little creatures that live in NZ with us. https://www.inaturalist.nz/projects/hunt-for-the-toatoa-bud-gall-mite #NZ #NaturalHistory #entomology #mites #discovery #CitizenScience

Have some oribatid mites for #MiteMonday. These tiny detritivorous soil-dwelling mites look kind of like shiny poppy seeds. The plates on their sides are called pteromorphs ("wing-shaped") and are a feature of certain groups. #bugstodon #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Oribatida #Poronota

#MiteMonday: I chased this sidewalk mite around a bocce ball court in a park for ages because I thought it was one of the iridescent blue-green ones, only to find out it just had some green stuff on it. 😐 It looks kind of like lichen but I have no idea how lichen would even grow on a mite. It's probably some random paint or powder or algae-filled water that dried on it. #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Erythraeidae

Today's whirligig mites are eating:

• small fly (midge?)
• plant bug nymphs
• another whirligig mite

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae