so ive been digging around and learned a lot! figured id share so no one else needs to have a panic attack when they find these fellas in their tlo soil.. looool
now i just need to teach them to NOT compost my seedlings!
enjoy the info:!
Oribatid Mites are a group of mites which live in the soil. There are many, many mites which live in the soil, collectively called "soil mites," but this page focuses on mites in the Oribatidae Family. There are more Oribatid Mites than any other soil mites. Oribatid Mites are tiny. They only grow up to a millimeter long. Their color can vary, but they all have a hard exoskeleton (shell). Like all mites, these animals are close relatives of ticks and spiders. Oribatid Mites live in the top layer of the soil, leaf litter, or other debris (stuff laying on top of the soil). They can also be found on mosses, lichens, and other low plants. These mites live in huge numbers. Hundreds of thousands of mites can live in one square meter of soil. To see one well, you would need a microscope. Oribatid Mites do not need to mate to make more mites. Females can lay eggs on their own. Oribatid Mites eat fungi, algae, and dead plant matter. They also eat dead springtails (tiny insects that live in the soil) and live nematodes (tiny worms). These mites are extremely important. They break down old material, such as dead leaves, and put the nutrients back into the soil. This allows living plants to pull the nutrients back into their roots so they can grow and feed animals. Without Oribatid Mites and other soil mites to "recycle" old material on the ground, plants and animals could not survive. That includes us! Soil mites are also a food source for soil predators, including: small salamanders, beetles, ants, centipedes, larger mites, spiders, and others. Even though they are tiny, soil mites can also be hosts for parasites, such as tapeworms. Oribatid Mites are born from eggs as nymphs. Nymphs are a smaller, slightly different-looking version of adults. As nymphs eat and grow, they molt (shed their skins). Each time they molt, the nymphs look more like an adult mite. Oribatid Mites cannot burrow through the soil. They rely on larger animals to make tunnels so they can move around. As mentioned above, Oribatid Mites and other soil mites are extremely important as decomposers. They break down old dead stuff and turn it into soil with lots of nutrients. All living things benefit from the job they do. The presence of lots of mites is a sign of healthy soil. Scientists can study the mites they find in the soil to learn how clean and healthy it is. Most of the time, people walk upon the soil and don't even know there are millions of mites under their feet! Mites of the suborder Oribatida (=Cryptostigmata), also called "beetle" or "moss" mites, are the world's most numerous arthropods living in soil. Their density in forest soil can reach hundreds of thousands of individuals per square meter. There are several thousand described species, yet the fauna of much of the tropics is still unknown. Adult oribatid mites usually have strong exoskeleton, hardened by sclerotization, as in other mites, and by mineralization, similar to millipedes and isopodes. These slow moving mites are 0.2 - 1.0 mm in length and occur in the top layer of soil, in litter debris, sometimes also on plants, mosses and lichens. In contrast to many other microarthropods, oribatid mites reproduce slowly. In cold climates, their life cycle can stretch up to seven years (usually one-two years). Females lay few eggs. Many species are obligately parthenogenetic, with no males recorded. With their slow metabolic rate, slow development and low fecundity, Oribatida are not capable of fast population growth and are usually restricted to relatively stable environments, in contrast to more opportunistic groups such as collembolans. Oribatid mites graze on fungi and algae, consume decomposing plant matter and occasionally dead collembolans. Some oribatids feed on live nematodes. For many groups feeding habits are still unknown. Adult oribatid mites experience relatively little predation due to their strong exoskeleton, though they are subject to predation by ants, certain beetles and small salamanders. The soft-bodied nymphs are attacked by many soil predators. Oribatida comprise an important component of soil decomposers; their abundance, species composition and diversity in a particular habitat serve as good indicators of soil "health".
