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Project Noah Nature School
Aetalion sp.
A small planthopper with a severe infestation of mites. With so many of these feeding in the planthopper's hemolimph, it is unlikely that it will survive.
A small preserved area in an urban environment.
Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Aetalionidae: Aetalionini: Aetalion sp.
Spotted on Dec 31, 2019
Submitted on Dec 31, 2019
16 Comments
Wow, those mites are large compared to the hopper's body, too.
Thank you Tukup.
Congratulations Sergio. What a unique picture.
Thank you for this renewed honor.
“Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!”
I guess it is an old softie too, Mark... ;-)
They do seem to be focussed on the weak spots. :-(
Leuba, I can't really say if they are just taking a free ride on this bug but, for what I've seen before, they are sucking the poor critter for good... And things can go even worst: https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/10...
Interesting idea Leuba. I had no idea what "phoretic" was so HAD to go digging😊 I found the following article enlightening. Thanks for the push. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1955...
Wonder if the mite is phoretic on the plant hopper - just holding on to the hopper so that it can be transported... Nice shot Sergio.
Thank you ornithoptera80.
nice spotting Sergio
Ooh makes me itchy.
I agree with Tukup. Parasites everywhere :-/ I never even considered that mites would appear like this. Well spotted, Sergio.
Thanks Tukup.
Great shot Sergio. I'm continually surprised at the number of insects that are parasatized. Amazing.