Moss Mites in woodlands.
by David Copestake, 8 February, 2013, 2 comments
In every wood there is moss and leaf litter, and inhabiting these are multitudes of microscopic creatures. Many of these are mites (Acari). Mites are arthropods - literally animals with pairs of jointed legs and a hard exoskeleton (cuticle). The main groups of arthropods are
the insects
the crustaceans
the myriapods and
the arachnids
The Acari or mites (and ticks) belong with with the spiders - as arachnids. The arachnids have two main regions (or tagmata) to the body - the cephalothorax and the abdomen but these regions are difficult to distinguish in the mites - the head end is known as the gnathosoma and the posterior part as the idiosoma. They usually (but not always) have 4 pairs of jointed legs. The Acari probably outnumber all other arthropods is the soil / humus complex. Read more...
