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Mites
Images
and Text ©
2006 Jeffrey C. May
| There are hundreds of species of mites. Most dwell in
the soil, but some live in our basements and bedrooms. At the right
is a light photomicrograph of a 112-micron egg, containing a fully
developed mold-eating mite. The entire egg is stained pink by acid fuchsin,
but you can see the textured pattern of the egg surface and the mite's
folded legs. There are a few pink-stained mold spores at the
left. The egg was found in a colony of mildew growing on a wall in a
house. |
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Some mites live only on other organisms, and some forage for
their nutrients. Dust mites eat skin scales that we humans shed in
abundance and leave in our beds and couches. At the left is a 150x
scanning electron micrograph of three mites within a gap between two
segments of a dermestid beetle larva. The larva was feeding on the
carcass of a dead squirrel. |
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