Pseudoscorpions with small mites (photos)

[Biollantefan54]

Hey everyone! I recently went out after a rain spell and collected a bunch of springtails from some trees that I want to culture. During rainy days, the springtails huddle on trees in the cracks and crevices of the wet areas in the bark. While I was collecting some, I caught a pseudoscorpion. This is not the usual Chthonius tetrachelatus I can easily find in my yard, it’s a member of the superfamily Cheliferoidea. I decided to keep it, I already had tons of springtails to feed it, so I made a little “enclosure” out of a tiny tiny vial and threw in a few pinches of dirt and leaf bits and a tiny piece of bark from the tree. It’s been doing good, as far as I can tell, and I decided to photograph it today. I’ve had it for about a week now and noticed that it has tons of mites on it. I had no idea until I looked at it earlier today with my camera. I am positive these were on it when I collected it, as I’ve only had it for a week. These photos are about 5x in magnification, if anyone knows how big pseudoscorpions are, you’ll understand how tiny these mites are. I’m not sure if these mites are parasitic or if they are just hitching a ride in the pseudoscorpion, like how this pseudoscorpion might hitch a ride on a fly or beetle. Either way, I think it is super cool to see this all happening at such a tiny scale. Hopefully I can figure out what mites these are, at least to a family level.

Closeup of the legs
Closeup of the claws

 

[NMTs]

Awesome.

 

[Isopods others]

How big are they?

 

[Biollantefan54]

How big are they?

I’m not sure, the pseudoscorpion is only about 1/5” or so, quite tiny

 

[Jimmyboi]

They look like mites to me but more importantly, what's your camera setup? You should probably be getting paid for this quality of photography.

 

[Biollantefan54]

They look like mites to me but more importantly, what's your camera setup? You should probably be getting paid for this quality of photography.

Thank you so much! My camera is a Nikon D7500 and a Laowa 25mm at 5x. I use two remote flashes on little maneuverable arms with diffusers on them positioned on the sides of the subject. It gives a really nice light (when the flashes work!)

 

[viper69]

Mites

Pseudo

 

[Biollantefan54]

I’ve since learned that these mites are probably in the family Acaridae, but I’d need to look at them under the microscope to tell. I do have the tools needed to do that, however I don’t want to risk hurting the pseudoscorpion to get the mites! The mites are not really dangerous, they apparently don’t even really have mouths yet. They are babies just hitchhiking, so the pseudoscorpion is apparently getting a taste of it’s own medicine

 

[DustyD]

Fantastic job! Thanks again for providing a glimpse of the amazing natural world around us that often goes unnoticed ( at least by me).

 

[The Snark]

Acaridae

That group includes numerous predatorial and parasitic mites. Since you have the wherewithal, try to get a sideways look at the mouth parts. You are looking for one or two penetrating tubular extensions which is the easy way to tell problematic from benign mites. That tube is absent in the foraging species.
BTW, most mites mature within a couple of weeks. Some in a few days.

Grain mite L, Scabies R

 

[Charonius]

I think that hairs is a way to defend from this mites, hinder moves and space.