EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Pika Mites

Daurian Pika (Ochotona dauurica), Family Ochotonidae
Yol Valley, Gobi Desert, Mongolia

Explanation:  Here is the wily Daurian pika of the Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia.  This relative of rabbits inhabits the arid grassland steppe of central Asia.  

But look closer.  There are hitchhikers.  Or more accurately, ectoparasites.  

A colony of ear mites.

I could find no studies of the occurrence or impact of ear mites on Daurian pikas or their near relatives.  One study of the nearby plateau pika, Ochotona curzoniae, found occurrences of warble fly (Hypoderma satyrus) and tick (Ixodes crenulatus) ecoparasites.  

Some ecoparasites hitch rides to move from place to place, disembarking from their hosts to form new colonies elsewhere.  

Mites hitch rides on a variety of animals, including bats, dragonflies, and many domesticated animals including cattle, dogs, cats, and more.  And even people.  What they're doing on this unfortunate pika is ... riding along, but beyond that, unknown.  

  
Information:
     Ci, H., G. Lin, J. Su, and Y. Cao.  2008.  Host sex and ectoparasite infections of plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae, Hodgson) on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.  Polish Journal of Ecology 53(3):535-539.
     Czenze, Z.J., and H.G. Broders.  2011.  Ectoparasite community structure of two bats (Myotis lucifugus and M. septentrionalis) from the Maritimes of Canada.  Journal of Parasitology Research Article ID 341535, http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/341535.
     Zhang, L., S. Parsons, P. Daszak, L. Wei, G. Zhu, and S. Zhang.  2010.  Variation in the abundance of ecoparasitic mites of flat-headed bats.  Journal of Mammalogy 91(1):136-143.