Mite ID - Penthaleus major

Amazing photos! What is your secret?

Hi Scott, I have been drooling over your photos on BugGuide. Do you mind if I ask what your secret is?

I have taken many shots of this mite species and none compare with yours. I cannot figure out why I am unable to get the detail you are getting while using comparable equipment. I use a Canon 5D Mark IV, MP-E 65, both Canon extension tubes (EF12 & EF25), MT26-EX-RT twin flash. Since I can't figure out how to embed a thumbnail in a comment I have included a dropbox link below to some of my mite photos. The settings for the 5K5A2728.jpg photo were 1/200, f/9.0, ISO 500 and all the other photos were taken at similar settings.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mwihidg9bkhrbj7/AACe_DcrvhKP-K6diUdsBbMha?dl=0

I would appreciate any tips you can give me.

Thank you,

Wendy Duncan

… Wendy Duncan, 31 January, 2021 - 9:48pm

Moved

Moved from Earth Mites.

… Kevin Hall, 5 August, 2009 - 2:45pm

Moved

Moved from Erythraeoidea.

… John F. Carr, 4 April, 2009 - 5:04pm

Moved

Moved from Mites and Ticks.

… Scott Justis, 10 March, 2009 - 2:13pm

erythraeoidea

Wow- great pictures! i love the droplet of water that's clinging to its back! This is in the superfamily Erythraeoidea, possibly an erythraeid, but i'm not 100% sure.

… Kaitlin Uppstrom, 10 March, 2009 - 1:53pm

Penthaleidae

Not erythraeoid... this is a eupodoid mite almost certainly in the family Penthaleidae, which is a new BG family. I think penthaleids have a dorsal anus (at least some of them do), and it's possible that droplet is actually poop! Cool! Anyway, they're plant feeders... we're getting them on young winter wheat starting about this time of year. Some can be major pests in Australia (red-legged earth mite).

S. Justis.... amazing... simply amazing. You even captured the slight iridescence on the idiosoma! Beautiful.

… Ray Fisher, 3 April, 2009 - 10:32pm

Thanks Ray!

The drop on its back could very well be an excretion. In the first image, it actually appears to be smaller. I will request a new page.

… Scott Justis, 4 April, 2009 - 9:16am

Thank You Kaitlin

I will put these images in Erythraeoidea since you're not 100% sure about the mites status as an erythraeid.

… Scott Justis, 10 March, 2009 - 2:12pm

Mite ID Photos

Sorry I can't help with the ID. Fantastic photos. What camera, lens, aperture did you use?

… lreid, 4 March, 2009 - 9:15pm

MPE-65?

I have a hard enough time keeping up with mites at only 1:1 magnification.

… John F. Carr, 4 March, 2009 - 8:54pm

Ireid, John...

I was using a set of Kenko extension tubes (12, 20 and 32mm) with my MPE-65 lens on a 40D body. An MT-24 twin flash is used and provides more than enough power. For this particular mite, I had the MPE set at between 2-3x with the extension tubes on. Aperture was f/8

Fully extended, I estimate a total of about 8x for the really tiny mites etc. I use an aperture of f/5 to f/6.3 usually.

I had to shoot about 30 frames to get these few good ones as this little fellow was constantly on the move.

Thanks for the kind words!

… Scott Justis, 4 March, 2009 - 11:31pm

Magnification

I read that the focal length of the MPE-65 at close focus shortens to 40mm. The full stack of extension tubes should give you an extra 1.7 additive factor (68mm/40mm), not multiplicative, for 6.7:1.

… John F. Carr, 11 March, 2009 - 7:35pm

I measured magnification increments...

on the lens barrel and added the length of the ext. tubes to it and came up with around 7.7x. This might be wrong because there may be some internal lens movement that I cannot see when going from 1x to 5x.

… Scott Justis, 13 March, 2009 - 11:18am

Sheesh

You know, it's bad enough that you've got that MPE-65 going (Kevin, do not covet thy neighbor's lens. Do not covet thy neighbor's lens.) But then you just *have* to throw extension tubes on it also??

Beautiful as always, my friend. *sigh*

… Kevin Hall, 7 March, 2009 - 9:51am

I found a nearly new...

set of these for a great price, so I couldn't resist. Fellow Bug Guider David Reed uses them and I was impressed with his results.

Thanks Kevin!

… Scott Justis, 7 March, 2009 - 6:45pm