I just found the smallest mite I have ever seen on the gaster of a Camponotus semitestaceus alate I caught last weekend. At first I thought it was just a bump on the ant's gaster, because even when poking it with a tiny pin, it was very hard to move it, but then all of a sudden it started walking around. The strangest part about this is that this ant was soaking in alcohol for a while. I pick much larger mites off my lizard sometimes, but these die instantly when they come into contact with alcohol. I got some pictures with as much magnification as my microscope can do (90x). Now I'm kind of wondering if this could be the cause of some new queen deaths, since without a microscope you would never even be able to see this thing.
