Download high resolution image here.

I collected this mite on South Crest Trl, 9400 ft, Sandia Crest 7.5’ quadrangle in the Sandia Mountains, Bernalillo Co, NM from a Berlese funnel loaded with soil from a 40 cm deep core sample taken of a formica argentea ant nest. The deutonymph determination is based on there being two distinct types of nymphs of this species found in the nest, with this representative of the larger one. Mesostigmata lack the tritonymphal stage. I posted images of a representative worker ant from the nest, both sexes, and three immature stages (linked below). See the adult female post for more details.

This specimen was treated with HMDS(1) to minimize shrivel from desiccation.

This image is from a CombineZP processed stack of 228 images with a 3.6 µm step taken with a Mitutoyo BD Plan APO 20X/0.42 ∞/0 mm microscope objective + Nikon 135 mm F2.8 AIS telephoto lens + Nikon D300 camera (magnification 13.5×; technique described here).


Host worker:


Adult female, adult male, larva, protonymph, and deutonymph stages, respectively: