Today's whirligig mite (family Anystidae) menu:
- a plant bug nymph (family Miridae)
- another whirligig mite, or an old exoskeleton maybe?
- a thrips
-a small midge-like fly of some sort
Out of sheer curiosity I captured about half a dozen decently sized whirligig mites and put them on the brown-eyed Susan (_Rudbeckia triloba_) plants which are currently covered in large black aphids. (They do not seem to appreciably harm the plants, which will only mature and bloom much later in the year.) I am not sure if they'll even stay on the plant given how erratically they run around, nor if they'll go for the aphids.
#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #bugstodon #mites #arachnids #insects #thrips #flies #Acari #Acariformes #Anystidae #Hemiptera #Heteroptera #Miridae #Thysanoptera #Diptera