Mate guarding of a juvenile female in mites of the Histiostomatidae (Astigmata, Acariformes)
von wirthstef
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A strategy to avoid male competition for females
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Some mites of the Histiostomatidae practice so-called mate guarding of subadult females in order to have an advantage in the intraspecific competition between males for adult females. My SEM image shows a male on top of a female, which is still inside its tritonymphal cuticle. Inside the tritonymphal cuticle, the adult female is already developed and shortly before hatching. Before hatching, the legs of the new instar are folded under the body side. The new second leg on the right side is visible in the SEM, because the weak cuticle of the old leg broke off. This strategy to avoid sexual competition is quite common with Histiostomatidae. Due to insufficient mite material and not longer available clear ecological data, I determine the long haired adults of my old SEM series with caution as Histiostoma sp., it seemingly was found around sap flux on a tree trunk in Berlin. The species is not identical with Seliea pulchrum (= Histiostoma pulchrum), typically known from sap flux. The distance between the male legs 1 and 2 in the photo is about 0.1 mm. These SEM objects were seemingly chemically dried for the scanning electron microscopic procedure. The photos were taken around 2005 with an older SEM at FU Berlin. © Stefan F. Wirth Berlin 2022
biologe 
This is a reminder to me of how complex the universe is, and how I easily forget the intricacies of nature.
Hi thanks very much for that comment. Indeed I was always, even as a child, fascinated by this complexity, the complexity of the very tiny aspects of our world.
That is wonderful, and hence your profession, my youngest son has a similar experience, but not the profession.
My heart says, the guarding might be kind of romantic. The biologist inside me says „kinda cool!“
It’s all about competition and mating success…