![]() ![]() Ochoa credits the mites’ unseen dimensions for their ongoing success. Photo by Gary Bauchan, Ron Ochoa and Chris Pooley/USDA – ARS, Electron & Confocal Microscopy Unit The Spinosaurus mite is named after the Spinosaurus dinosaur because of its enlarged back fin. That’s barely one third the width of a human hair. The tiniest mite on record is 82 microns long. ![]() Ticks - the blood-sucking, Lyme disease-carrying subclass cousin of mites - are considered the largest of the kind, but most mites are much smaller. NewsHour paid a visit to the facility to see what’s under everyone’s skin. ![]() The facility also plays host to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s mite collection that contains more than a million different mite specimens representing more than 10 thousand species. Ochoa works for the USDA’s Electron and Confocal Microscopy Unit in Beltsville, Maryland, an agricultural research facility that allows scientists from around the world to get high-resolution images of the mites they are studying. Almost every single plant has one to three mites. Department of Agriculture Entomologist Ron Ochoa. “There are at least between 3 and 5 million species of mites, and that is a very conservative number,” said mite expert and U.S. Mites are arachnids, much like spiders and scorpions, and the microscopic creatures are among the oldest and most plentiful invertebrates on the planet. From the tea we drink, to the water we swim in, to the beds we sleep upon, millions of minuscule mites share our wide world. ![]()
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