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Reposted by Armando Rosario-Lebrón

Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

For fun, today I will walk through how acarology works, and how I got this mite I found by the Welsh shores down to species. This also applies to many insects. When someone says "Can you tell me what species this is?" is often a hard question to answer. #bugsky #inverts #entomology #ukwildlife 🧪🌿

Close up photo of a tiny mite walking across a wet, muddy brown surface on the shore. This was the underside of a rock near LLanelli. Its body is a smooth, glossy, orange brown oval, longer than it is wide, that shines in the light. Paler orange legs and mouthparts reach forward to the left.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

Now that we've taken our measurements we can measure the specimen, we've gone through the key and measured the entire specimen. We can compare this to what was originally written in 1920. The end result is an image of our measurements here, cleaned up, showing it's Hydrogamasus giardi and male.

Annotated microscope photo titled Hydrogamasus giardi, male. The amber mite lies diagonally across a yellow background. A white line along the body reads length 0.58 mm and a second line across it reads breadth 0.32 mm. A circle and label mark the curved spur on leg II, which shows it is a male. A scale bar in the lower left reads 0.2 mm. Text above the photo says the body is 0.58 mm long without the mouthparts and 0.32 mm broad, and that Halbert (1920) gives 0.56 mm for the male of giardi and 0.92 mm for the male of littoralis.

Higher magnification microscope photo of the front end of the mite, pointing down. The dark, pointed mouthparts are in the middle with a short, blunt palp on each side. Jointed, bristly legs run down the left and right. The thick leg on the far left carries a large curved spur, like a claw.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

Then we have to calibrate our microscope measurements using a tiny ruler, add a picture, then use software to extrapolate the size based on the measurements. Given that the Pugh thesis and the 1920 paper separate species out by size this is the most important thing we need.

Annotated microscope photo titled Eyepiece circle read against the 0.01 mm stage scale. A thin circle engraved in the eyepiece sits over a cross shaped ruler with fine tick marks. Blue tags mark where the circle crosses each arm of the ruler: 21.5 divisions left of the middle, 19.5 right, 21.1 above and 19.9 below. Blue arrows across the circle in both directions read 41.0 divisions = 0.41 mm.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

Sometimes a description from the olden days is the way to go. This one is from Halbert in 1920 "The Acarina of the Seashore", where he wrote about seaside mites back in the day. This is where I find the description of the lost mite that's on my website: rosariolebronentomology.com/thinozercon/

Scanned paragraph from page 121 of Halbert's 1920 paper The Acarina of the Seashore, under the heading Hydrogamasus Giardi (Berl. et Trouess.). It says the species is found from the Pelvetia down to the Serratus zones at Malahide, often with H. littoralis, and that the two are structurally very much alike but may be separated as follows. Hydrogamasus littoralis: larger; length of female about 940 microns; breadth 560; length of male 922; colour paler; form more oval; hairs of dorsum relatively longer; fissure separating dorsum from anal shield reaching the end margin of body. Hydrogamasus Giardi: smaller; length of female 640 microns; breadth 312; length of male 563; colour much darker; body hairs shorter; fissure not reaching end margin of body.

Plate XXI from Halbert 1920: a page of fine line drawings of shore mites on cream paper, headed Proc. R. I. Acad., Vol. XXXV, Sect. B. More than twenty numbered figures show whole mites from above and below, alongside enlarged legs, shields and mouthparts. Figure 3, upper right, is a young stage of Hydrogamasus littoralis seen from above. Figure 4, on the left, shows the toothed pincers (chelicerae) of a male Hydrogamasus giardi.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

As a fun aside, I'll will add that I found P. J. A. Pugh's PhD thesis from Wales at the library at the Swansea University Library. He created an entire key to seaside mites. His description shows a certain size range and some plates that don't seem to reflect reality. This is kinda common.

Screenshot of a typed key from a PhD thesis, headed (m10) Family: Cyrtolaelapidae Cooreman, 1943. A note says the family was resurrected by Evans in a personal communication, splits off from the Rhodacaridae and includes the genus Hydrogamasus. Two species in Britain. 1a: Idiosoma over 700 microns long, and uniformly ovoid (Fig. 1), leads to Hydrogamasus salinus (Laboulbene, 1851). 1b: Idiosoma under 650 microns long, with straight lateral margins converging posteriorly from the shoulders, leads to Hydrogamasus giardi (Berlese & Trouessart, 1889). Notes on H. giardi follow: mostly in crevices, also under stones and under algal cover on rock, with older records from Ireland, Anglesey, Devon and the Mediterranean, and new records from Cumbrae, Northumberland, Pembrokeshire, Gower, Ogmore by Sea, Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.

Plate of four hand drawn line figures labelled Fig. 1, from the same thesis. 1.1: a mite from above, with a broad egg shaped body covered in short setae and the mouthparts and four legs drawn. 1.2: a mite from below, with three round leg sockets on each side and a large rounded shield over the rear half. 1.3: the mouthparts enlarged, with the palp segments lettered. 1.4: a second view from below with the parts lettered, including a separate genital shield marked g and a large rear shield marked va.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

Then, once it gets us to Hydrogamasus, we do a kind of sanity check, a reality check. We check and we see: okay, does this make sense given the images we see there? Have we made a terrible mistake? The key tells us this organism should be found by the seashore, just where we found it.

Line drawing, labelled (b), of the underside of a Hydrogamasus body with the legs removed. At the top are the stumps of the first legs with a small forked organ between them. Three round leg sockets run down each side. Between them lie a broad sternal shield and a smaller genital shield, both with pairs of fine setae. A large rounded shield covers the rear half, dotted with pairs of setae, with the anal opening at its tip. Along its rear edge it merges with the body margin.

Microscope photo of the whole mite on a slide against a pale background. The body is a translucent amber oval, with the pointed mouthparts at the bottom and eight jointed, bristly legs spread out. Round leg bases show through along both sides of the body, and dark curved bands show in the rear half. One thick leg beside the mouthparts carries a curved spur.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

The key starts asking us about the general shape of the body, whether or not the dorsal and ventral shields are fused (the body is made up of a shell of sorts), the general structure of it. After that come the three ventral setae on tibia I. The higher magnification is to show them.

Screenshot of a printed identification key headed Key to genera (adults). Couplet 1: With holodorsal shield in both sexes, go to 3. With discrete podonotal and opisthonotal shields in both sexes, go to 2. Couplet 2: Tibia I with 3 ventral setae (total 13 setae); both sexes with the ventro anal shield fused with the holodorsal shield posteriorly (Fig. 40(b)). This leads to Hydrogamasus Berlese, 1892. Type species: Gamasus littoralis G. & R. Can., 1881.

High magnification microscope photo of one leg segment of the mite, titled Tibia I: three ventral setae. The amber segment runs diagonally across a pale background, with stout, curved, pointed bristles sticking out on both sides. Three white circles numbered 1 to 3 mark the three setae. Numbers 1 and 2 sit on the face of the segment, each a small round socket with the seta rising from it. Number 3 is a curved seta at the lower right edge of the segment.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

Only now, almost two weeks later, my specimen is ready to be identified! Now you need literature... books and papers possibly from decades ago, as this stuff isn't updated often. The first step was to find a key to the mites of the UK generally. Thankfully there's one compendium for UK mites.

Title page of a scientific monograph. At the top: Trans. zool. Soc. Lond. (1979) 35, pages 139 to 270. The title reads Mesostigmatic mites of Britain and Ireland (Chelicerata: Acari Parasitiformes). An introduction to their external morphology and classification. The authors are G. O. Evans, University College, Dublin, and W. M. Till, North East London Polytechnic, London. Accepted 10 October 1978, with 56 figures in the text. Published for the Zoological Society of London by Academic Press.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

That was allowed to dry for two weeks before putting some enamel paint around the coverslip to seal the specimen under the glass permanently. I messed up a bit and added too much. That's all the red you see there. The blue dots are paper towel divots because I didn't want to dirty my table.

A glass microscope slide lying on a white paper towel covered in blue dots. A round coverslip in the middle is sealed with a thick, messy ring of bright red enamel paint. Under the glass, to the right of the middle, the mite is a tiny reddish brown speck, smaller than one of the blue dots.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

The specimen was then transferred to a drop of a mounting medium. I am using a mixture that can be made using stuff off of Amazon. It's yellow because it has iodine to stain the cuticle of the specimen. The mounting medium is nice because it's a mixture of sugar, iodine and lactic acid.

A large, round drop of bright yellow mounting medium on a white surface. A single small brown mite lies in the drop, left of the middle, with its oval body and eight legs spread out. The lamp makes a bright white reflection on the drop at the upper right.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

These were then transferred to a solution of lactic acid and glycerol so that their insides are digested by the acid. You can see in the image here three of them floating in the lactic acid as they are digested. A few days later and the specimens' insides are largely gone.

View down a microscope: a bright white circle surrounded by black. Three tiny orange brown mites float in clear liquid in a small dish. Two sit close together near the middle and a third, slightly out of focus, is at the lower right. Each has an oval body with its legs spread out.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

After taking the photo, we acquired the mites using an aspirator. Basically a little suction device. Those little critters went directly into alcohol. So as not to affect the population, only three were collected from the hundreds on the beach.

View of the estuary from collection site, the rocks were flipped for the aspirator

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 09/10/2026

An entomobryid springtail enjoying a drying flower head. Needed a break and took this outside of my office. Ended up giving a tour of the tiny things people ignore. #bugsky #inverts

Macro photograph of a tiny pale yellow springtail walking across a drying flower head. The springtail is elongate and soft bodied, covered in fine pale hairs that catch the light, with a small dark eye patch and long segmented antennae, one raised upward and the other stretched forward. Its legs grip the tips of dark maroon, nearly black florets that are stiff, pointed, and covered in a glossy pebbled texture. The springtail is brightly lit and seems to glow against the dark background, while the surrounding florets fade into soft blur toward the edges of the frame.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 07/10/2026

This is a wasp. Specifically a sawfly larva, Diprion pini I think. I love sawflies like this because they really challenge what people think of as a "wasp". Beautiful animal. #entomology #hymenoptera #bugsky #ukwildlife

Extreme macro close up of a sawfly larva's head and front body against a black background. The larva looks like a caterpillar. Its head is a glossy, rounded, orange brown capsule with a darker patch on top and a scattering of fine short hairs. A single round black eye sits inside a black patch on the side of the head, with a small pale antenna stub just below it. Dark mouthparts point down and to the right. Behind the head the body is soft, wrinkled and pale creamy yellow, slightly translucent, with two bold matte black spots and rows of tiny black bristles. Black and white banded legs grip a twig at the bottom of the frame. A blurred brown stem runs out of focus to the right.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 25/09/2026

He was a very funny, outgoing person who, like most of us in the family, had enough charm to spare. But I was lucky. I had mentors who stepped in and changed my path in life. He didn't have the interventions I did. I think with all the "Philadelphia Zombieland" stuff people forget these are people

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 25/09/2026

I'm not one to air my family issues online. I lost my cousin George to fentanyl. He was as smart and capable as I was, but the troubles of life led him to drugs instead of a career. If life had treated him differently, he would have accomplished something great. We weren't different. I was lucky.

A vintage studio portrait of George as a young boy, smiling at the camera. He has light brown hair with a fringe and wears a maroon knit shirt with a pink collar and buttons, against a plain brown backdrop.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 15/09/2026

Ideally I'd like to get some mite experts and see if we can host a workshop for those interested in the UK. I may already have some locations for the training. I also don't want to charge for it.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 15/09/2026

My idea is to replace the clearing agent with something easy to find on Amazon. But more potent than lactic acid. Vitamin B3 is a potential candidate but it crystallizes easily. I want this stuff to be inherently low toxicity. The specimens need visibility in a cheap Amazon scope.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 15/09/2026

I'm working on developing a modification of Dioni's mounting medium to make it cheaper for people to study mites as an amateur hobbyist. I'm going to modify the mounting medium with a few things. The base recipe is way too thin. It needs thickening.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 15/09/2026

You'll see the first results here of my mounting media testing. It's a laelapid mite. I am not satisfied with how dark the specimen is. Even after slide mounting, under the microscope the specimen is not clear and not really quite visible. It's a bit disappointing. #bugsky #inverts 🌿🧪

Transmitted light microscope image of a laelapid mite mounted on a slide, dorsal view. The body is a deep orange brown and heavily sclerotised, so dark that internal structure obscures the dorsal shield outline. Long, sparsely spined legs radiate from the body. The specimen is not fully cleared and detail is hard to resolve.

A small orange brown mite suspended in a bright yellow droplet of mounting medium on top of a cover slip viewed at low magnification. The mite is pale and semi transparent here, with all eight legs spread out and visible against the yellow field. A few flecks of debris sit in the medium.

A microscope stage seen from above, with a slide bearing a single domed droplet of yellow mounting medium under a round coverslip. The objective is out of focus above it. A red box labelled Microscope Slides Frosted sits in the background.

Three small orange brown mites before transferring to mounting media in lactic acid on a white background seen through a microscope eyepiece, the circular field of view surrounded by black. Two mites sit close together at upper left, a third smaller one at lower right. Legs and body outlines are clear against the pale background.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

Highly recommend the video I sent. As for resources the USDA just updated their massive compendium here: idtools.org/invasive_mit... open to the public. There are hundreds of pages (5688 to be exact). I have been backing it up in case the government shuts it down. Video link: idtools.org/videos.cfm

idtools.org

Invasive Mite ID

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

Small coverslips to reduce crushing. Ticks are a special case as they're little tanks. As you can see with the other photo I had it's easy to crush a specimen. They'll pop like a little balloon. Those are great mounts though! Should've asked if one of the local collections wanted it!

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

Give it a try and see if it works. I highly recommend clearing oribatidae for many days before mounting. Also not crushing them, smallest coverslips possible. This is how I ended up with this;

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

The problem with PVA in mites is that it tends to deform and generally dry into a mess with them. For a while we thought it'd be a magical compound. It's worth noting that the iodine slides in the national mite collection in the US have gone black. Without a stain it's hard to use just bright field

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

Instead of KOH in the video we use lactic acid for cosmetic use. Instead of hoyers we are using our fun mix here.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

As for the actual technique, this is the video youtu.be/A80nFaFgXw0?... I'll give some workshops in the UK in the next year about this for those interested.

youtu.be

Mite

YouTube video by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

As for microscopes any cheap one with a diaphragm works because the iodine stains it. Right now I'm using smartmicrooptics.com the diple II but it's VERY finnicky with XY stage controls. Why did I do this? I wanted my setup to be fully portable.

smartmicrooptics.com

Homepage - SmartMicroOptics

This is the website of SmartMicroOptics, the company which manufactures Blips and DIPLE, the world-known lenses for smartphone.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

This mix makes something you can put in a little stopper. Order some glass coverslips and slides off Amazon and put a tiny mite/insect in there. Over a few days on a reptile heating pad the specimen will become transparent as its insides are digested by the lactic acid.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

Details, I'm using a modification of this you'll need Lugol's or a tincture of iodine, some vegetable glyercin, 80% lactic acid for cosmetic use) glucose syrup for cake making, gum arabic (sold as a bag of resin), a reptile heating pad and and some distilled/deionized water.

www1.montpellier.inra.fr

A further modification of Dioni’s mounting media to allow staining, clearing and mounting of Acari

Modified Dioni’s media has previously been presented as an alternative to tradition Gum Chloral mounting media for microscopical specimens. This paper aims to explore a further modification of Dioni’s...

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 14/09/2026

First step in using the Thinozercon Project to bring people into the world of mites: I have been testing a way to democratise mite ID. What if I could make a slide mounting medium out of relatively non toxic cosmetic chemicals off Amazon? These images are the first results. #entomology #bugsky 🧪🌿

High magnification view of an oribatid mite through a circular microscope field, the dark edge of the eyepiece framing the image. The rear of the amber notogaster sits at upper left and the gnathosoma fills the centre, with the chelicerae extended and their toothed chelae visible. Legs radiate to the right and lower left, individual segments, claws and long fine setae resolved sharply against the pale background.

Whole mite mounted on a microscope slide, photographed down the eyepiece. The body is a translucent amber oval roughly egg shaped, with eight legs splayed out around it and the mouthparts and chelicerae projecting forward at the top. Paired rounded coxal plates show through the cuticle in the front half of the body. A clump of granular yellow gut content or debris sits beside the right hand legs. The background is pale grey with scattered specks of dust and air bubbles in the medium.

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Reposted by Armando Rosario-Lebrón

Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 06/09/2026

New Thinozercon trip in Wales. This time a very successful trip with LOTS of amazing little critters. Everything from Crustaceans, Hemiptera and velvet mites in one location. Wales has such amazing #ukwildlife 🌿🧪 #inverts #bugsky #entomology Blog here: rosariolebronentomology.com/thinozercon/...

A pale, translucent Corophium amphipod in side view, walking across wet grey estuarine mud on its long banded antennae and front legs, with glistening sediment in the background.

A bright red velvet mite, plush and densely furred, walking over coarse damp sand mixed with tiny shell fragments and strands of green algae.

A small orange-brown predatory mesostigmatid mite with a smooth, glossy oval body, standing on rippled wet mud, its pale forelegs extended ahead like feelers.

A slate-blue sea springtail, Anurida maritima, its plump segmented body covered in fine white hairs, crawling across shiny waterlogged mud, with a much smaller pale springtail visible below.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 06/09/2026

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 02/09/2026

I was a wee little hoodlum from North Philadelphia. I knew nothing about entomology or arachnology until the kind people at ANSP took me in and let me work in their collection. They are the reason a young, poor Puerto Rican broke into the field. This is a travesty. I would not be here without them.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 31/08/2026

Oh absolutely, most people ignore the small things! I hope someone can be inspired to look

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 30/08/2026

Bracelet Bay / Mumbles "expedition" in #Wales. I couldn't pass up posting these additional photos. Amphipods, a crab, more of the lovely Anurida springtails in magnification, and one of my favourite inverts, a great photo of a chiton! Best mollusc ever. #inverts #bugsky #invertefest #ukwildlife

A Lepidochitona chiton on damp, pale grey rock at low tide. The oval mollusc is seen from above, showing its eight overlapping shell plates in mottled green, olive and brown, ringed by a speckled girdle with a finely fringed edge. Coarse sand grains, shell fragments and a small piece of red seaweed lie scattered on the rock around it, with a few grains resting on its back.

A European green crab, Carcinus maenas, facing the camera on sunlit pale rock, seen from slightly above and in front. Its carapace is glossy olive green and brown with a toothed front edge, and its dark stalked eyes are raised. It holds a bright red, branching scrap of seaweed up to its mouthparts with one claw, and its walking legs are braced against the rough rock surface.

Close up of a loose group of about eight translucent amphipods on wet brown sediment. The small shrimp like crustaceans lie in the typical curled, side lying posture, their segmented bodies and pale legs visible through the transparent shell. Bits of shell and dark debris are scattered across the wet surface around them.

Extreme close up of a single slate blue springtail, Anurida, on wet sand, viewed from above and behind. Its plump, segmented body is covered in short pale hairs, and its stubby antennae and short legs are visible at the front. It sits among rounded quartz sand grains in shades of amber, white and grey, with pale shell fragments nearby.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 30/08/2026

Another fun day searching for my cryptid mite. I don't think this is the right kind of habitat, but maybe the springtails are a clue towards what we are looking for? Could they unlock what we are trying to find? 🌿🧪 #bugsky #inverts Full blog here: rosariolebronentomology.com/thinozercon/...

A wide rocky shore at low tide under a broken grey sky. Dark, deeply fissured rock stretches to a calm sea, cut by narrow channels and pools holding clear water and fringes of brown wrack. A lone bird flies high at upper right.

A long, narrow tide pool running between pale limestone weathered into honeycomb shapes. The still water reflects the sky, and its floor is carpeted in bright green seaweed with tufts of dark red wrack along the left edge.

A chiton resting in a thin film of water on wet, algae stained rock. The oval mollusc shows eight ribbed, grey green shell plates with a dark reddish brown flank, surrounded by scattered shell fragments and a small snail at its edge.

Extreme close up of a slate blue springtail on pale, water covered shell fragments and quartz like sand grains. Its plump, segmented body bristles with fine pale hairs, and its thick, stubby antennae reach forward mid stride.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 24/08/2026

Almost at MiteOS v1, a compact, cheap data recorder at around £100/$140. It captures GPS and sensor state, adds written or voice notes, then saves the record and a spreadsheet. Made for the Thinozercon Project to test ideas for my larger Wales PhD work.🧪 rosariolebronentomology.com/miteos/ #inverts

A compact white M5Stack Cardputer ADV running MiteOS on a wooden table. A waterproof metal temperature probe, coloured sensor wires, GNSS and LoRa module, and USB cable are connected. The small screen displays the MiteOS readiness menu.

Close view of MiteOS running on a white M5Stack Cardputer ADV with a miniature physical keyboard. The screen shows readiness checks for the SD card, probe, GPS, system, and charging mode. A GNSS and LoRa module sits above the screen, with an M5 Stamp S3 board connected on the right.

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Reposted by Armando Rosario-Lebrón

Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 23/08/2026

New entry to the field log. With a promising turn of events in our search. A massive number of the "right" kind of mites near where the specimens were found. Will we locate it? Or will I become very fit from lugging my macro equipment around? Only time will tell 🧪🌿 #bugsky #entomology #inverts

rosariolebronentomology.com

The Field Log | The Lost Mite of the Irish Sea

Where the hunt has looked, what was found, and where it goes next.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 23/08/2026

rosariolebronentomology.com

The Field Log | The Lost Mite of the Irish Sea

Where the hunt has looked, what was found, and where it goes next.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

It probably tastes like a 1mm sized king crab. Just sayin.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

A mite last seen 39 years ago. We will be walking the Welsh shore looking for it, and posting as we go. The site now has a live blog, a map of everywhere we have searched, and a Welsh option. I can't speak Welsh, but this is Wales. It needed a Welsh option. Thinozercon is out there. #inverts 🧪

Screenshot of the Lost Mite of the Irish Sea website on a phone, styled like a page from an old book: cream paper, a brown double ruled border, antique serif type. A bar across the top holds a Contents button, a CY button for Welsh, and an Aa button for text size. The title reads The Lost Mite of the Irish Sea, above the line Ireland, 1915 · Wales, 1987 · Then the record goes silent. The italic paragraph below reads: The hunt for one of the strangest and most mysterious arachnids of the Irish Sea shore. First found on Irish shores in 1915, then recorded once more in Wales in 1987 by Swansea researchers working in Milford Haven on a study part funded by the oil industry. Thinozercon has not been seen since. The Hunt for Thinozercon intends to change that.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

With this particular critter there is a chance the first life stage is hanging out on copepods somewhere. We have another chance for a new explorer to find those larval forms and it just hasn't been done due to technological limitations, funding and time. Far from the 1800s and still a mystery.

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

If you ask people who hate spiders, then yes, that's the case as well. Sith law. Most invert People work that way really. Thus my side project : entofacet.org

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

Oh, that's way too long to write here, always loved arachnids. Years ago, I started working for the USDA and was converted by one of the most amazing, kind, and outgoing mite people in the world. His positivity and his passions really converted my general interest in arachnids into mites

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Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 19/08/2026

Thank you so much for the kind words. I deeply enjoy doing these fun expeditions. I've never invited other people to them. I figured I'd be creating a gateway drug to the world of mites! We need more people in it!

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Reposted by Armando Rosario-Lebrón

Armando Rosario-Lebrón @rosariolebronentomology.com · 17/08/2026

I'm hunting for a "cryptid", but with tiny feet. I've launched a website about the creature. Are you a naturalist, #entomology , #arachnid or general invertebrate enthusiast around #swansea and #wales? Do you have a free weekend day in the UK? I'd love for you to come along. More on the website 🧪

rosariolebronentomology.com

The Lost Mite of the Irish Sea: Have you seen this mite?

Found in Ireland, 1915. Found in Wales, 1987. Lost since. A one millimetre cryptid of the Irish Sea shores, and a weekend hunt to find it again.

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