1

Heavily armored scutacarid mites hitch rides on larger arthropods in their search for food,tumbling off when they arrive at a source.

2

Supersize foot pads enable feather mites to hold fast to their avian hosts. This species trails sensory hairs used for navigating and finding mates.

3

Rabbit ear mites chew on their unwitting host. The rabbit scratches, its ear oozes, and the mite feasts on the fluid.

4

Box mites retract their limbs and snap shut when threatened.

5

Frontipoda is a predatory mite that lives in small ponds and feeds on larval midges. A relative of spiders and scorpions, it has eight legs, as do most mites, although some have fewer limbs.

6

Gamasellus is a blind predator that uses sensory hairs on its front legs to locate prey and large, toothed pincers to capture them. It then injects a deadly cocktail into its victim.

7

Mites of the genus Schwiebea are found in many places, from soil and tree cavities to mushrooms, decaying wood, and swimming pools.

8

The eating end of an oribatid soil mite is equipped with "more tools than a Swiss army knife," They include short pincerlike appendages and tiny limbs for handling food.

9

Scientists are discovering that mites are exquisitely adapted to nature's every niche. Case in point Colorful beads of water-repellent wax ensure that a moss mite stays dry in its damp world.

10

Magnified hundreds of times, this predatory soil mite is the terror of its microscopic world.