Tydeid mite

Tydeus californicus

Mites belong to the arthropod class Arachnida. Among the smallest arthropods, many of them can not be seen by the naked eye. Tydeidae belong to the mite order Prostigmata, which includes some 120 families of mites. Mites of the Tydeidae are believed to have originated from a group of free-living forms that colonized soil and related habitats (André & Fain 2001). They have evolved a diversity of feeding habits. Many are fungus feeders, but others are plant feeders, predators and scavengers. Some species are considered pests or beneficials on agricultural crops, but their economic importance is less than pests such as spider mites, eriophyid mites and tarsonemid mites, and beneficials such as phytoseiid mites and stigmaeid mites. The life cycle of tydeid mites is typical of the primitive Prostigmata and includes six stages: egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, tritonymph and adult. Development from the egg to adult takes normally a few days to a couple of weeks at ambient temperatures.

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