Locust infected with mites?
Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 8:48 PM
Hi guys,
This locust was very well disguised by colour and textures to fit in with the semi arid landscape and I only spotted it when it jumped out of my way. After processing the shot I noticed the little red attachments. Would they be some type of mite or some other parasite?
aussietrev
Capricornia region, Queensland
Hi Trevor,
Your Locust is in the suborder Caelifera and probably one of the Short Horned Grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. We are not certain if the Mites are parasitic, but that is quite likely. There are some mites that infest insects, but they are not parasitic. Rather, they use the insect for transportation purposes, a phenomenon known as phoresy. We are currently experiencing problems with images going live and hope to resolve this very soon.
This is the photo I would like to use…I forgot to mention a hyperlink would be provided directly to this site along with proper recognition of where I got the picture from…This is just a perfect picture for what I need!
Hi Kayla,
Please post a comment on the posting with the photo you would like to use. You can just duplicate this email, but post it as a comment on the other posting.
Daniel
Hi Kayla,
What’s That Bug? endorses your usage of this image on your educational website. Trevor is a frequent contributor to our site and we are going to copy him on this response.
The mites belong to the very large lineage known as Parasitengona, a group that includes velvet mites, chiggers and water mites. There are species in a number of families that parasitize Orthoptera as larvae.