This image: two mites moving on the pitted and irregular granite rock, one is going up on the left, one coming down, to the right.
Tiny bright scarlet mites (okay, tiny for other critters, big for a mite!) with a velvety look and patches here and there where the colour seems to have faded to near/white. They have 8 legs, 4 are near the head/front part of the body(cephalothorax meaning the head is not separate from the front body part; or prosoma), which is a tiny part in comparison to the huge abdomen (or opisthosoma; rear part of body). The body is kind of lumpy and potato shaped with some ridges and indentations, including a large depression at the top of the very back end- apparently diagnostic for genus Eutrombidium.
This image: a single mite partly in shadow and partly hidden, following a 'long' horizontal pit in the rock- like a cave at its scale.
Tiny bright scarlet mites (okay, tiny for other critters, big for a mite!) with a velvety look and patches here and there where the colour seems to have faded to near/white. They have 8 legs, 4 are near the head/front part of the body(cephalothorax meaning the head is not separate from the front body part; or prosoma), which is a tiny part in comparison to the huge abdomen (or opisthosoma; rear part of body). The body is kind of lumpy and potato shaped with some ridges and indentations, including a large depression at the top of the very back end- apparently diagnostic for genus Eutrombidium.
I've been seeing these funky *tiny* critters for a few weeks in #RockGardens - on soil/ plant debris. Here some of them were #RockClimbing making 📷 a bit easier; Velvet Mites /Eutrombidium genus- I think!
#arthropods #arachnids #nature #wildlife #GetOutside #biodiversity #MacroMonday #FotoMontag 🌿