Three-spotted Velvet Mite
Anterior
Short-haired Red Velvet Mite
Male?
| Three-spotted Velvet Mite Anterior | | Short-haired Red Velvet Mite Male? | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Spiders, Scorpions, Mites & Ticks (Arachnida) | |||
| Order: | Mites (Trombidiformes) | ||||
| Family: | Velvet Mite (Trombidiidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Short-haired Red Velvet Mite (Paratrombium sp) | ||||
| This Photo: | Female? | ||||
Thank you Owen Seeman for confirming and Ray Fisher for helping with the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere We found what we think is a female being harrassed by some males. The larger (female) was ~5mm, while one of the smaller (males?) was ~2.5mm. Tiny bright red scavenger with 8 legs. The hair is difficult to see with your naked eye. Notice the white patches are different coloured hair. It's possible the "males" are juveniles, or young adults? Owen said "It would be good to confirm that they're males and they're mating. I don't work on the group much, but males of the ones I've worked on are much the same size as females (but nymphs obviously smaller). But these Allothrombiinae are much bigger than the erythraeids I'm more familiar with, so perhaps females are huge for these." Further, in relation to the id, Owen said "Yes, a good chance. I'm not sure if the white spots/bands are intraspecific variation of P. album, or if there are multiple species - but at least the white banded ones are Paratrombium sp. (as confirmed by larval rearing) and the ones with three white spots are attributable to the description of P. album." | |||||
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