Found in rearing container filled mainly with Osmode*rma em*ericola frass pellets plus some larv*ae of that species. (Asterisks prevent bugguide searches on those words from yielding this image.)

The container has a healthy population of tiny, pearlescent springt*ails and assorted mites, including this speed demon. Despite having lost one of its front legs, this mite showed up as an intermittent split-second flash of light color in the dark frass as it zipped around oblong frass pellets like an electron around a nucleus. At first I thought it was a sp*ringtail jumping suddenly out of sight. I decided to catch it and see what it was.

Standing poised over the container with plastic spoon in hand, I saw its flash and quickly scooped up the surrounding frass. In a glimpse under my loupe's magnification I saw that it was a lanky-looking mite. I flicked frass pellets off the spoon until I had isolated the mite to one small clump, at which point it began running around in the spoon. I held the spoon over a waiting deli container and flicked the mite off into it with my fine-tipped watercolor brush. I gave the container bottom a fine misting, turned on the light arena, camera, and flash unit and prepared to chase this tiny, seven-legged bullet around, hoping for at least one photo that wasn't a blur. Surprise! The mite stood stock still and I easily got some decent images.

My guess is that this mite is a specialized sp*ringtail hunter. Why else would it be so blindingly fast? I think its activity of orbiting the frass pellets at such blazing speed had the ojective of catching one of the sprin*gtails before it had an opportunity to spring away. Who knows how long I would have to watch to see confirming evidence, assuming I'm right? A mite like this could catch a dozen spr*ingtails before it ever caught one in my view, and that's assuming I didn't blink.