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March 30, 2021
It's time for today's edition of #BenInNature presented by our friends at Carter Bank & Trust!
If you have a garden, you've probably been working in it one day and seen a tiny, bright-red critter about an eighth of an inch long crawling through the dirt. These little guys are known as red velvet mites!
Red velvet mites belong to the family Trombidiidae, and they're arachnids just like spiders, ticks, scorpions, and chiggers. They most closely resemble chiggers, although you don't have to worry about them biting you, unless you happen to be a very tiny insect.
These mites make their home in leaf litter. As larvae, they parasitically attach themselves to other insects and feed on their hemolymph, which is the insect equivalent of blood. As they become nymphs and then larger (comparatively, anyway) adults, they spend their lives in the soil and leaf litter hunting prey smaller than themselves, such as mites or insect eggs.
Red velvet mites are no threat to humans, and they actually serve an important function in nature. Since they often feed on insects that themselves feed on bacteria and fungi, they help speed up the leaf litter decomposition process.
ABOUT #BenInNature
Social distancing can be difficult, but it presents a great opportunity to become reacquainted with nature. In this series of posts, Administrator of Science Ben Williams ventures outdoors to record a snapshot of the unique sights that can be found in the natural world. New updates are posted Monday - Friday, with previous posts highlighted on the weekends. This series of posts is made possible thanks to the support of VMNH Corporate Partner Carter Bank & Trust (www.cbtcares.com)
NATURE PHOTO IDENTIFICATIONS
If you discover something in nature that you would like help identifying, be sure to message us right here on Facebook with a picture (please include location and date of picture) and we'll have our experts help you identify it!
