Saturday 6 August 2011

More like shag pile than red velvet

Working in the garden today and came across one little critter that is hard to miss even though it is only about 3mm in size.

A relation of spiders this is one of the Red Velvet Mite species (or though this one is more shag pile carpet) of the genus Trombidium and their bright ruby red colouring makes them hard to miss. They are a predator of other insects and generally beneficial in the garden.
Today has been almost summer weather and the heat brought snakes out to soak up the warmth so first sighting this season of a Red-belly Black Snake, a Diamond Python and the Yellow-faced Whip Snake.
I guess they were making the most of it as we are due for cooler weather in the next day or so.

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