Mites on My Tarantula's Chelicerae

[ShyDragoness]

See All you need to know about mites (by boina, a microbiologist).

I miss boina

 

[Entomologist210]

I'm an acarologist and only recently got into Ts after seeing a colleagues collection. Ticks and mites are my bread and butter and find this to be fascinating. Not sure why the mites are up on the sides of the chelicerae as parasitic mites would be up into the joints and along the flats of weak portions of the exoskeleton. I've seen hypopi that actually use their sucker plates to siphon hemolymph directly through the cuticle of insects they happen to be riding on phoretically, but phoretic mites are somewhat choosy in their rides and I doubt they'd get up on a spider unless there's some kind of kleptoparasitism involved.

 

[Ungoliant]

but phoretic mites are somewhat choosy in their rides and I doubt they'd get up on a spider unless there's some kind of kleptoparasitism involved.

The chelicerae could be a good place to freeload, as there would be bits of food left over from mashing up their prey.