Bryobia praetiosa

The Clover mite (Bryobia praetiosa) is a species of mite.

Bryobia praetiosa
Clover mite with sewing needle for scale
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Arachnida
Subclass:
Acari
Order:
Trombidiformes
Family:
Tetranychidae
Genus:
Bryobia
Species:
B. praetiosa
Binomial name
Bryobia praetiosa

Description

Clover mites are 0.75–0.85 mm (0.030–0.033 in) long, oval shaped arachnids with a pair of long legs pointing forward often mistaken for antennae.[2] They are reddish brown; the younger ones and the eggs are a bright red. They are extremely common in late spring in North America.

Ecology

Clover mites are polyphagous, feeding on a wide range of plants, including "lawn grasses, ornamental flowers, clover, dandelion, shepherd's purse, strawberry, daffodil, Salvia, Alyssum, and primrose".[2] They are especially numerous in lawns with a heavy growth of succulent, well-fertilized grass. They do not cause any apparent harm to turf grass, but their feeding activity can turn the grass a silvery color and may stipple plants when heavy populations are present.

Clover mites reproduce parthenogenetically, their eggs do not need to be fertilized and are entirely female. Females lay about 70 eggs each.[3]

They generally enter houses close to thick vegetation and can infiltrate houses in very large numbers through cracks and small openings around windows and doors. Whether indoors or outside, clover mites are found more commonly in sunny areas than in darker areas. If squashed, they leave a characteristic red stain caused by their pigmentation.

Clover mites are not harmful to humans, pets, or furniture.[4]

gollark: It's *.
gollark: This is not very accurate, though.
gollark: In a market, if people don't want kale that much, the kale company will probably not have much money and will not be able to buy all the available fertilizer.
gollark: You can just hand out what some random people think is absolutely *needed* first, then stick the rest of everything up for public use, but that won't work either! Someone has to decide on the "needed", so you get into a planned-economy sort of situation, and otherwise... what happens when, say, the community kale farm decides they want all the remaining fertilizer, even when people don't want *that* much kale?
gollark: Planned economies, or effectively-planned-by-lots-of-voting economies, will have to implement this themselves by having everyone somehow decide where all the hundred million things need to go - and that's not even factoring in the different ways to make each thing, or the issues of logistics.

References
  1. "Species Bryobia praetiosa Koch, 1835". Australian Faunal Directory. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. October 9, 2008. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
  2. Gomez, Celina; Mizell, Russell F. (September 2008). "Clover Mite Bryobia praetiosa Koch". Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. EENY 437. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  3. "Clover Mite". entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  4. "Clover Mites". extension2.missouri.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  • Arnarsdóttir, Eygló Svala (May 25, 2007). "Red invasion". Iceland Review Online. Retrieved July 5, 2007.
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