this cockroach (recently molted, not yet hardened) though pleasantly dopey-looking isn’t the focus of this post—they’re living on him.
meet Androlaelaps schaeferi, the hissing cockroach mite. when Gromphadorhina spp. were brought into captivity decades ago, their commensal mites came with them. the mites amble around the roach’s body, living off of food scraps and other debris, which actually helps keep their host healthy and clean.
when their ride is disturbed, the little passengers rush to a safe nook, often in the “neck” region where they’re well protected. even when their host dies, the mites are hesitant to leave the only home they’ve known.
(There are around 130 families, so we’re counting superfamilies for this one)
Families without a superfamily: Dithinozerconidae (Dithinozercon halberti)
Species without a family: Meliponopus palpifer
Anatomy: single pair of spiracles positioned laterally on the body; three-segmented chelicerae; fused cephalothorax and abdomen; larvae have six legs while adults have eight
Diet: varies widely between species; some are parasitic, some are free-living predators of smaller invertebrates or their eggs, some eat pollen and nectar, some eat fungus, and some eat dead and decaying organic matter
Habitat: worldwide in terrestrial and freshwater habitats
Evolved in: Late Cretaceous
(source)
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Propaganda under the cut:
While some mesostigmatans, like the Varroa Mite (Varroa destructor) (image 1) which feeds on domestic honey bees and the Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) which feeds on poultry, are destructive pests in agriculture, others are considered beneficial in agriculture, as important predators of nematodes and insect larvae, while predatory mites such as Phytoseiulus persimilis (image 4) eat spider mites, their eggs, and all developmental stages between.
Some mesostigmatan mites, especially those that only feed on fungi, carrion, pollen, or nectar, are phoretic, meaning they will hitch a ride on insects, millipedes, or other animals to disperse to new environments (see gif above). This does not hurt the other animal, they merely get to be a bus for a bit, and sometimes the mites will even help them out by eating parasites or cleaning up their nest.
By: Rositsa Davidova, Viktor Vasilev, Maria Boycheva, Ailjan Dzhevat Key Words: Bird, Nest-box, Astigmata, Prostigmata, Mesostigmata
The mite fauna inhabiting nests of various birds in Bulgaria and the world as a whole not yet been insufficient studied. Data of mites of many species of birds, one of which is Ficedula semitorquata are still scarce. The aim of the present paper is to describe the taxonomic diversity and distribution of astigmatic, prostigmatic and mesostigmatic mites in nests of semi-collared flycatcher in North-East Bulgaria. Differences in the species richness and abundance of mites at studied nest-box plots were assessed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Pairwise comparisons were performed using Tukey´s tests. Twelve species, belonging to seven families of mites (Dermanyssidae, Macronyssidae, Laelapidae, Myonyssidae, Macrochelidae, Cheyletidae and Acaridae) were recorded. 157 (83.51%) of investigating 188 nests were infested with mites and the average abundance per nest was 21.24. The distribution of the found species in the nests and nest-box plots is uneven.
when observing hissing cockroaches, you might have noticed a few brown specks scrambling over their backs or gathered in the seams of their exoskeleton. they are Androlaelaps schaeferi, a species of mite that lives its whole lifespan onboard a giant cockroach host! the commensal A. schaeferi isn’t a parasite, though, and takes its meals from its hosts’ own. if the mite’s mooching helps clean where the roach itself can’t, the relationship might even be considered mutualism, where both species benefit.
on the white of a freshly molted roach, the mites are particularly conspicuous, and even the pale juveniles stand out.
