"So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum."
- Jonathan Swift

May 5, 2010

May 5 - Acarapis woodi


Earlier, you saw the mite Varroa destructor, that hitches rides on honeybees. Now meet Acarapis woodi, another teeny tiny little mite that also infects honeybees. But, unlike Varroa, this species gets inside the trachea (the tubes that it uses to exchange gases) of the bees. The mites pierce the trachea and suck up the hemoplymph to get their nutrients. Bees can be infected with huge numbers of these things, and even though they're tiny, it's got to be hard to fly when you've got 100 little passengers!

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