Why no one wants to eat the giant velvet mite

Virtually no one wants to eat the elusive giant velvet mite, research finds. This suggests the mites have to deal with few, if any, predators.

“I thought, ‘Well, I’m a generalist predator. I should just try one myself.'”

They’re velvety, red, pea-sized, and they scurry across the ground in the desert Southwest after torrential rainstorms. According to the “King of Sting” Justin Schmidt, an adjunct scientist with the University of Arizona entomology department, giant velvet mites are such elusive creatures that little is known about them.

Schmidt and his wife, Li Schmidt, report their findings on the giant velvet mites in the Journal of Arachnology.

Here Justin Schmidt talks about the surprising discoveries he made by observing the tiny arachnids, pitting them against predators and even tasting them:

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