Steven E. F. Brown

On a morning trip to Redwood Park last weekend, Kieran and I captured an unusual black harvestman, or daddy-longlegs. At first, we thought it was akin to some neotropical species, as it had bright orange marks on it. But closer examination revealed that the bright dots were mites attached to it. Like ticks (which are also a type of mite) attach themselves to larger vertebrates (like our dogs and us), mites afflict arthropods and other small creatures. Note the mites are clustered near the joints in the harvestman’s tough exoskeleton, because they can’t pierce it anywhere else.

Mites attached to a harvestmen found in lower Redwood Park.