Mites
This reading profile brings together 7 source-linked articles that reference mites.
Explore Fauna’s source-checked field guides and research articles covering mites, or search the species catalog below for individual species profiles.Source-linked reading
- Field guideHow sloths host miniature ecosystemsA sloth's outer coat is exposed habitat with water, structure, nutrients, and transport through the forest. Algae and fungi grow among hairs while specialized and incidental arthropods live there, creating interacting trophic levels rather than one simple sloth-algae partnership.
- Field guideHow plants defend against herbivoresThorns, hairs, waxes, tough tissue, toxins, digestibility reducers, wound sealing, regrowth, and herbivore-induced chemistry form layered defenses. Volatiles and extrafloral nectar can alter predator or parasitoid behavior. Herbivores in turn avoid, detoxify, sequester, or suppress plant defenses, making outcomes specific to each interaction.
- Field guideWhy bats roost in coloniesA communal roost can reduce heat loss, create a warm nursery, connect familiar partners, and provide social cues about shelter or food. Those gains come with crowding, competition, parasites, and disease transmission, so bats change group size and roosts as conditions shift.
- Field guideDecomposition and nutrient cyclingAnimals fragment and consume litter, while fungi, bacteria, and other microbes use enzymes to break complex molecules down. Some carbon enters decomposer biomass or soil and some is respired; nitrogen, phosphorus, and other elements can be immobilized, transformed, released, transported, and taken up again.
- Field guideFinding and comparing microhabitatsChoose patches at a scale meaningful to the organism, compare equal areas for equal time, record environmental variables as well as detections, use repeated matched pairs, and distinguish use from preference.
- Field guideHow birds build nestsNest building combines species-typical tendencies with local decisions and, in many birds, experience. A builder may scrape substrate, excavate, stack, weave, knot, plaster, or mold materials while repeatedly testing the structure against support, temperature, rain, predators, and parasites.
- Field guideMaking useful citizen-science recordsA useful record preserves what you encountered, where and when you encountered it, and honest evidence that another person can evaluate.