#podocinidae

Podocinum spp.

A genus of mites found worldwide.

I've gotten some good shots with my phone over the last year. This is not one of them. On the other hand, the subject is a mite, and even one as large as this is still a very small subject.

I'd been turning over some damp firewood at a rural site I was waiting to spray, and turned up a half-dozen of these large yellow mites with very long forelegs, slowly clambering around the fungal filaments. Macromite helpfully pointed me towards the Podocinid family, and the genus Podocinum. In a post about springtail-hunting mites, they say:

I’ve watched Podocinum fishing for springtails. They are slow-moving, stately mites, but as they wander the front legs dangle in front exploring their world. When a springtail is encountered by the light touch of the long distal setae, the mite pauses, and then quickly scoops their prey in towards their chelicerae: another springtail become mite fodder.

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EDIT, 2025: Almost certainly NOT a Podocinid - Linopodes is much more often seen, even if solitary and never in large numbers. Here’s a somewhat better photo from the Goodale Sanctuary