Everyone knows that there are ticks that live in forests and pose a considerable danger to humans. Their relatives, living in human dwellings, also cause a lot of trouble. There are mites that damage the national economy: they destroy plants and parasitize animals.
A subclass of ticks has gained a truly formidable reputation… Some species are so deadly that a person takes all possible measures to destroy them. But on whose side the advantage in this centuries-old war is still a big question.
Against the background of relatives with a reputation for merciless killers and indestructible pests, water mites seem almost harmless. Many people have never heard of this group. Our article will help fill this gap and tell about the features of the life of these animals.
General information
The first thing to focus on is species. Some mistakenly consider ticks to be insects, but this is not at all the case. They are arachnids.
The family has the international name Hydrachnidae. The whole life of these ticks is associated with the aquatic environment, but in habits they are more similar toterrestrial arachnids than with other aquatic organisms.
Appearance
Let's see what water mites look like. Photos will help visualize this.
Like all arachnids, they have four pairs of legs. The rounded body consists of an abdomen and a relatively small head. Most representatives of the group are small, up to 2-3 mm.
Typically, the body is bright in color, from bright yellow to red. Some types of water mites are decorated with ornaments.
The chelicerae (jaws) are developed, and the pedipalps (jaw tentacles) are equipped with bristles or hooks. In adults, the legs are much longer than the body and are equipped with bristles necessary for movement in the water.
Ticks have two or four eyes. According to scientists, they have excellent eyesight, which helps them navigate even in muddy water.
You can only see in detail what a water mite looks like under a microscope. But the accumulation of parasites on the host can be seen with the naked eye. For example, the red spots on the back and sides of the water strider bug are nothing more than a colony of larvae.
Hunting and food
Most water mites are excellent hunters and predators. They feed on zooplankton and sometimes attack other invertebrates. Some species are parasitic, while others prefer native plants and detritus.
Most parasitic species feed on aquatic insects, some are dangerous to mollusks. The parasitism of this group of water mites in most cases does not pose a deadly threat.the owner, however, damages his he alth, affects his lifestyle, weakens and causes inconvenience.
Habitat
Among aquatic plants in shallow freshwater reservoirs there is a wide variety of water mites. Most often, these animals settle in lakes, ponds, swamps, river creeks, less often in the flowing water of rivers and even never-ending forest puddles.
Representatives of this group are distributed almost everywhere. A very small number of species can survive in s alt water.
Physiology
All types of water mites breathe by absorbing oxygen dissolved in water by the surface of the body. The threshold for the required concentration is extremely low. Even if there is only one part of oxygen per million parts of water, that is enough for mites. Due to this, the survival rate in polluted waters is very high.
Ticks develop with metamorphosis, that is, the larvae are very different from adults in appearance.
A tick comes into the world with six legs. Most species parasitize in the larval stage. Then the larvae have a complex life cycle. It includes three juvenile stages. The larva pupates to later become a nymph. The nymph is more like an imago, and her lifestyle is more mobile. The first attempts to get used to the environment on their own, to master the skills of hunting begin. After a certain time, the nymph also turns into a chrysalis, to then become an adult.
Immature individuals spend most of their time in inert states,attached to the host animal or plant and existing at its expense. In free swimming, you can see only sexually mature water mites.
Who is this smoothie?
One more unusual creature is often mistakenly attributed to water mites. In fact, smoothness is a water bug. Its lifestyle is similar to that of aquatic arachnids; the smooth bug also spends most of its life in water bodies. But these creatures are not even distantly related.
How not to confuse? Estimate the dimensions and count the legs. Smooth is larger and has only 3 pairs of limbs.
Recently, this insect has attracted increased attention of active users of the Network. On many resources, fake news is rapidly spreading about the mortal danger of a smoothie, allegedly capable of killing a he althy person in just two days. The reason was a peculiar feature of these creatures. A photo of a male with a brood of eggs on his back looks very unusual, and therefore many people believe in the frightening text accompanying the picture.
But this creature does not pose any danger to humans. True, at any opportunity it is not worth grabbing him in your hands - like many bedbug relatives, he can bite painfully if he feels that something threatens him or his babies.
Danger of water mites for humans
Eight-legged inhabitants of water bodies are not dangerous for people either. Ticks are not able to bite, much less penetrate the skin. This family feeds on plants.food and plankton. Parasitic species are also not interested in humans.
