Mite be a bee, or bee it a mite?

You tell me .....

Pentax K10D & Tamron 90mm F2/8 MF Macro.

never seen that before..
but there has been some concern in northamerica about entire hives dying from mysterious cuases....
could be of scientific importance....
hope somebody knows what those are.

Looks horribly like a varroa mite to me . Good capture though!

They're just red spider mites, harmless to bees. They are a pest on plants though, but you'll often see them walking about on walls and stonework. Varroa mites are much smaller, more rounded and a darker red.

Dan

Varroa mites have 8 legs and more of a round body (Thanks wikipedia)

(edit to reply to daniels post)

Are you sure? Those red spider mites seem larger than the one pictured, its incredibly small.

Depends which red spider mites you mean. There are some which are tiny, I've seen plenty of these scurrying about, but then there are some which are about 3mm long and fatter than these too.

Here's one of the tiny ones: http://www.pbase.com/etuk/image/46776526 (not my image, found through Google). Note the front 'antennae' are actually legs.

Dan