I heard a talk from a specialist from Grinell on some free-living and
parasitic really ugly miniature arthropods once, including ancient species
from caves. I think this group includes the "dust mites" of our
house-generated allergies, used to convince us to buy particular air filters
(their poop is the actual allergin, I think). I wonder how small their
genomes are; an exercise in minimalist arthropods? Of such are genomic
sequence contacts born these days.
Jerry
At 05:23 PM 4/29/98 -0700, A. Kimo Morris wrote:
>James! Gerry Krantz (resident acarologist at Oregon State U.,
>Entomology) always used the edge of a microscope slide to scrape the
>critters off the skin just above his eyebrows. Yes, they are a bit
>strange looking, but then again, everything about the acari is strange
>(e.g. the fact that there are mites smaller than some protozoans boggles
>my mind). They have invaded virtually every major niche (except the
>ocean, oddly enough), and every major suborder (except one) has
>parasitic examples. Perhaps we should start a discussion on how varied
>parasitic mites are...
>- Kimo
>____________________________________
>A. Kimo Morris -- Scientist
>MBC Applied Environmental Sciences
>Phone:(714)850-4830
>Pager:(714)205-7366
>FAX:(714)850-4840
>kimomorris at sprintmail.com>Business: http://mbcnet.net>Personal: http://rvlscore.org/kimo/>>>James Mahaffy wrote:
>>>> Folks,
>>>> Thought I would share a demonstration that worked great for me. I
>> have always wanted to see if I could find hair follicle mites. I found
>> a way of doing it and it worked great.
>>>> Richard Miller (from Butler University) suggested a procedure to me
>> that he found in E.O. Wilson's book, Biodivirsity. I pulled the skin
>> tight across the forehead and then had a student scrape the skin using
>> my trusty Swiss Army knife. Richard uses a weighing spatula but the one
>> I tried did not have a sharp enough edge to pile the skin on top of the
>> spatula. I then put the material on a slide in a drop of immersion oil.
>> You don't need to look at them under immersion oil, the oil just
>> captures them nicely. In fact I used only 10 and 20X so I would not get
>> oil on non-oil objectives. There may be a bit of difference on where on
>> the face you get them. The first time I tried the middle of the forehead
>> and did not get any. The second time we scraped right above the
>> eyebrows and added a scrape from the nose and I got three of them. MAN
>> are they ugly. There is an outside possibility I may have a slightly
>> different strain since I grew up in Eritrea, but I suspect US mites are
>> just as ugly. If I had not seen the eight stubby legs I would have
>> thought I had a worm. I did this with a microsope up front connected to
>> two TV screens for a large zoology class (70+) students and it worked
>> great. It took a bit of time, but I am sure it will go quicker next
>> time.
>>>> Thought this was something that some of you might like to try.
>>>> --
>> James F. Mahaffy e-mail: mahaffy at dordt.edu>> Biology Department phone: 712 722-6279
>> Dordt College FAX 712 722-1198
>> Sioux Center, Iowa 51250
>>____________________________________
>A. Kimo Morris -- Scientist
>MBC Applied Environmental Sciences
>Phone:(714)850-4830
>Pager:(714)205-7366
>FAX:(714)850-4840
>kimomorris at sprintmail.com>Business: http://mbcnet.net>Personal: http://rvlscore.org/kimo/>>>>Gerald McLaughlin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dept Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
635 Barnhill Drive, MS A128
Indianapolis, IN 46202-5120
E-mail: gmclaugh at iupui.edu
Ph 317-274-2651; pager 275-5000, I.D. #2916
