nev , 20 days ago to random

Got a real corker for you all this #MiteMonday! Found this hister beetle (family Histeridae) covered in odd filaments, a few with shiny round brown things attached to the ends.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "It's some kind of fungus, like Cordyceps"—you're thinking of Ophiocordyceps, it got reclassified—"or Hesperomyces virescens on ladybugs." But Experience Hath Shewn me that it's almost never fungus.

That round, flattened shape had my inner voice going "Uropodina!" And it was right. I had thought these phoretic (hitchhiking) mites always anchored themselves flush to their host with their trademark anal pedicels™, but it turns out some excrete pedicels that are quite long and stalk-like, like this. For more information see this recent #OpenAccess paper, particularly Fig. 1: https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2288847 :OpenAccess:

#iNaturalist observation: https://inaturalist.ca/observations/221274565 :inaturalist:

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #phoresy #AnalPedicel #Acari #Uropodina

The beetle on its back. One of the filaments and its odd attachment are in focus. It is circular and segmented on the underside, a little reminiscent of an Oxalis seed perhaps.
Closer image of the beetle on its back from a different angle; nothing is really in focus, but four of the brown things are visible.