Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#620577
Hairy hair mite, dorsal

Hairy hair mite, dorsal
Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, USA
October 9, 2011
Size: 0.32 mm
Download high resolution image here.

This very small mite appears to be a Mesostigmata nymph. Any help in identifying it more specifically is appreciated. One distinguishing feature that may help is the long narrow scales which cover the setae (ie. "hairy hairs"). These are best seen in the high-resolution dorsal crop.

I collected this mite off Three Gun Spring Trl. 194 at 6000 ft elevation, Tijeras 7.5’ quadrangle in the Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co, NM from a Berlese funnel loaded with leafy detritus in an arroyo.

This specimen was treated with HMDS(1).

This image is from a CombineZP processed stack of 437 images with a 0.9 micron step taken with a Nikon BD Plan Apo 40X 0.8 NA 210 mm tube microscope objective + adapter/extension tube + Nikon D300 camera.

Images of this individual: tag all
Hairy hair mite, dorsal Hairy hair mite, lateral-anterior Hairy hair mite, ventral Hairy hair mite, dorsal crop