Thursday 10 July 2008

Red

Yesterday, while I was stalking fungi I found this little bug! It was small. I've had a bit of a look to try and determine which family it should be placed in. No luck. It's not a mite as it appears to have 6 legs rather than 8.

(Click image to enlarge)


Anyone know?


Update: It might be a mite of some sort afterall. Body shape and size is similar to the Red Velvet Mite. Apparently, there are about 30 species of the Order Acarina, family Trombidiidae in Australia of which very few have been documented.

6 comments:

Mosura said...

How big is that? Or if you didn't measure it, how wide are those leaves?

Junior Lepid said...

Mosura, it was about 5mm. The only reason I saw it was because of its colour - and it was moving!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Junior Lepid
The Chew Family website from Brisbane seems to indicate you are right with the Red Velvet Mite . They say if is "big".
Cheers
Denis

Junior Lepid said...

Thanks for that, Denis. I use Peter Chew's site a lot. It's very good. This one wasn't 'fuzzy' like the Red Velvet Mite and the white markings made it stand out too. That's not to say, they are not related.

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Junior Lepid.
I am posting tonight about a different soft-bodied creature - with masses of legs. If you have any ideas, it would be appreciated.
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By the way your photo link does not "enlarge" the image - at least not as of Monday evening, 7:45pm.

Cheers
Denis

Junior Lepid said...

Thanks for that Denis, I'll check your blog.

I hope the picture enlargement problem was just a blogger glitch!

It enlarged for me. If anyone else has the same problem, please let me know.