Image of Nanorchestes Topsent & Trouessart 1890

Description:

Under a high magnification of 6601x, this scanning electron micrograph (SEM) revealed the presence of numbers of mites from the specie Nanorchestes sp., Family Nanorchestidae, which was highly festooned with an adornment of chitinous exoskeletal outcroppings. Under this high magnification, these exoskeletal complexities were better appreciated in their diaphanous majesty. Members of this specie are free-living, fungivorous soil and leaf-litter/moss mites that were simply an incidental finding on the skin of this lizard. It is not a lizard associate per se, and certainly not parasitic.
Created: 2006