The bee year is coming to an end. Today I did the mites treatment. I hate this but it’s unfortunately necessary. I hope we won’t have any losses 🤞 let’s see. #bees#beekeeping#berlin#varroa#mites
#MiteMonday: I was taking a photo of this red velvet mite (family Trombidiidae) when I noticed something on its butt. To my great surprise, it was another mite—a mesostigmatid, which are often hitchhikers on other arthropods. I haven't seen anything similar on trombidiids before, to my knowledge. Anyone know what's going on here?
For #MiteMonday, here's a little oribatid I found under the bark of a rotting log in a very wet meadow. Unlike the poppyseed-like galumnoids I've posted before, this one has a clear division between head and abdomen. It would be serendipitous if it were a ptyctimous mite, as a new catalogue of this group was just published: https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5265.1.1