Parasites on beetles

[C.Seno]

Lately I've been seeing a lot of tiny black ground beetles ( about 4mm length ) on the grass in front of my house. I managed to get 4 of them into a jar. When I looked at them through a 10x objective, I noticed 2 of them had some orange 'mites' attached to them. The ones that were parasite free kept trying to run away from the other two. And when the affected ones got near the free ones they would grab and hold and bite them ( like possessed or something ).




First two pictures at 20x










Next picture at 28x







70x ( 2 horizontal frames stitched )







And lastly a 28x stereo

[ChrisR]

Fallen are the Mitey?
Remarkable story and picture sequence .

[Saul]

Nice set. #1 is my favorite.

[rjlittlefield]

Interesting!

That fibrous attachment reminds me of the one shown at Tiny brown mite attached to small black beetle (stereo view HERE). That one was characterized by an entomologist as a "phoretic mite", meaning that it was using the beetle for transport but not nutrition.

Yours, I don't know about.

--Rik

[C.Seno]

Thank you all for the positive comments.

Thanks Rik for the info.

In the first picture, (upper right section), I wonder if those other fibers are left from mites who had reached their destination?

[rjlittlefield]

In the first picture, (upper right section), I wonder if those other fibers are left from mites who had reached their destination?

Great point -- that seems like a very good explanation.

--Rik

[TheLostVertex]

In the first picture, (upper right section), I wonder if those other fibers are left from mites who had reached their destination?

So then, I guess we are actually looking at pictures of a bus and its passengers?