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whats that bug on my bug
This is by far my favorite web site! I have a giant ferocious water-bug in a 10 gallon tank, just as you had suggested to that lady 2 months ago. He is more fascinating than any bug I have ever had…my Potato bug used to eat crickets like they were cheeseburgers. Anyway, there are half a pin head size, red bugs starting to multiply on his back, though they do not look like the photo of eggs you have and it has taken 2 months for the one we could barely see swimming around in the tank to securely attach itself to our bug and multiply into about 12. Any guesses? I will try to get a macro photo of them, but here is one of my favorites…
Tom

Hi Tom,
Thanks for your nice letter. Your Toe Biter sounds like it might be carrying mites around.

Mites on the toe-biter?
Hi Daniel and Lisa Ann,
About the email on the Toe Biter from Tom on (01/27/2007) who talks about having 12 red mites on his Toe Biter? I remember seeing mites on aquatic insects, looking suspicious, and so I looked it up, and it turns out that *all* of the more than 5,000 known species of aquatic mites (Hydracarina) are partly parasitic. When they are larvae, aquatic mites are parasitic on aquatic insects, but as adults the mites become free-swimming and predatory. Winged aquatic insects, such as the toe biters, fly around of course, and that way the mites are spread from one body of water to another. You can read a lot more interesting stuff about them at:
http://www.tolweb.org/Parasitengona
And at :
http://www.tolweb.org/Hydracarina
Best to you as always,
Susan J. Hewitt

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