Red velvet mite
The red velvet mite is a tiny bright red creature that looks like a little blob of soft red velvet. Its body is covered in fine hairs. You can spot it wandering over the ground.
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Fun facts
It is one of the biggest mites in the cooler northern parts of the world, but still only about 4 millimetres long.
Its tiny eyes sit on little stalks.
Its babies cling to grasshoppers, flies or spiders and look like little red balls stuck on them.
Its red colour comes from the same kind of colouring that makes carrots orange.
It is a relative of spiders, so a grown-up mite has eight legs.
Most asked questions about Red velvet mite
?Are red velvet mites dangerous?
No, they are harmless to people. Their bright red colour is a warning to animals that might want to eat them.
?What do red velvet mites eat?
Grown-ups eat tiny animals and insect eggs. Their babies drink a little juice from insects and spiders.
?Is the red velvet mite a spider?
No, but it is a relative of spiders. Like them, it has eight legs.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trombidium holosericeum
- Group
- Scorpions, ticks and friends
- Family
- Trombidiidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Trombidiformes > Trombidiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Trombidium holosericeum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Lukas Jonaitis from Vilnius, Lithuania. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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