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Chock full o'mites A rather old image of mine that has been around on the internet, but hadn&#039;t made it to JD yet...<br /> A dung beetle so covered in phoretic mites that it clearly had trouble moving around.<br /> Even though these mites (probably some Poecilochirus sp.) are classified as Parasitiformes: Parasitidae they are not &quot;parasitic&quot; but &#039;phoretic&#039; : They just hitch a ride to the next dung heap the beetle is going to visit. Geotrupidae,Mesostigmata,Parasitidae,Parasitiformes,Phoresy,Poecilochirus,phoretic mites Click/tap to enlarge Promoted

Chock full o'mites

A rather old image of mine that has been around on the internet, but hadn't made it to JD yet...
A dung beetle so covered in phoretic mites that it clearly had trouble moving around.
Even though these mites (probably some Poecilochirus sp.) are classified as Parasitiformes: Parasitidae they are not "parasitic" but 'phoretic' : They just hitch a ride to the next dung heap the beetle is going to visit.

    comments (6)

  1. View Christine Young's profile
    Christine Young
    Lion
    View Lion class
    WHOA! Stating the obvious, but that's a lot of mites! I would be so annoyed if I was that beetle. Imagine all those mites crawling all over you!

    But, this is super cool!     Posted 4 years ago, modified 4 years ago
    1. View Pudding4brains's profile
      Pudding4brains
      Lion
      View Lion class
      My guess is that the beetle may have been a bit annoyed too - but maybe that's just me assuming stuff ;o) Posted 4 years ago
      1. View Christine Young's profile
        Christine Young
        Lion
        View Lion class
        Anthropomorphism really makes sense sometimes. Posted 4 years ago
        1. View Pudding4brains's profile
          Pudding4brains
          Lion
          View Lion class
          Or at least it is quite irresistible Posted 4 years ago
  3. View Barry's profile
    Barry
    Lion
    View Lion class
    Cool, but gruesome - mites give me the creeps! Posted 4 years ago
    1. View Pudding4brains's profile
      Pudding4brains
      Lion
      View Lion class
      Yeah - it didn't take too much effort restraining myself from offering to take'm over ;o) Posted 4 years ago

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By Pudding4brains

Public Domain
Uploaded May 9, 2021.
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