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Description

Many millions of years before the first canaries were ever seeded upon Serina's fertile eternal pastures, they and their fore-bearers and their fore-bearers' fore-bearers were inflicted by dermal parasitic mites, a pestilence that has followed them long since before the first birds even existed and continued to follow them in Serina's twilight, many hundreds of millions of years hence. No matter the form, size, or habitat, their parasites followed unerringly. The giant skuorcs are no exception, the loss of feathers and re-evolution of scaly skin was little issue, and their great sizes provided far more environment for them to proliferate. But it did present one challenge: with no shaggy integument to hide in, they were exposed to the elements, and of course predators, which swarm about the skuorcs endlessly, the countless parasites infesting their bodies allowing many species to specialize in cleaning them. And so began a strange sort of arms' race on this new sort of ecosystem, where even being a verminous leech is living life on the edge.

Glimmermites are a subgroup of ectoparasitic mite which do not suck blood, but feed on keratin, a substance most animals cannot effectively digest or derive nutrition from. At its base, keratin is constructed of protein chains, similar to flesh, but the polypetide bonds that create keratin are more difficult to break apart than other protein types, and keratin occurs in far smaller quantities in an animal, so fewer animals are adapted to subsist on it. For diminutive invertebrates like mites or insects, the relatively small amount of keratin available is no issue due to them already being very small, and with many other ectoparasites of skuorcs already specialized to consume the host's blood or flesh, at least a few groups have avoided competition with them by subsisting on the scaly skin surface itself, as well the spines, osteoderms, and quills that erupt from it in many giant skuorc species. Digestive enzymes secreted through their saliva help break down the keratin between being scraped up by mandible-like pedipalps. Although, glimmermites will also feed opportunistically from open wounds, or incisions created by specialized blood-drinking parasites able to open up the host's thick hide. The opaline glimmermite is a typical species, noted for its dark shell that shimmers bluish-purple, and can reach up to two centimetres in diameter.

In normal population densities, the glimmermites are largely harmless, as they don't naturally spread disease as many hematophagous micropredators do and they are so small that what damage they do individually is entirely negligible. However, as mites, they are naturally prolific breeders, with females producing up to five eggs in a single day, every day for their entire adults lives, and can easily overgraze, causing mange-like conditions and irregular shedding. Afflicted skuorcs can be easily recognized by patches of skin stripped down to the underlying pink dermis, which often become inflamed and infected due to secondary stresses by exposure, which is itself obviously visible by reddish bruising, oozing pus, and pimples around the overgrazed skin patches. The glimmermites' habit of feeding on already opened wounds and feeding on scabs also impedes healing and can expose their hosts to disease far more frequently. Other, more harmful ectoparasites often take advantage of overgrazed patches to more easily access blood vessels and muscle tissue and themselves proliferate, meaning the glimmermites can cause a cascade effect leading to poor health in their host if their numbers are left unchecked, even if they are just a minor irritant at worst by themselves.

Adult glimmermites are rather difficult to remove due to their namesake hard shells, a single sheet of glossy chitin which covers their entire bodies like an impenetrable shield. The edge of this carapace is serrated, allowing the mite to wedge itself into the grooves and irregularities of the skin, which, along with its strongly hooked feet, make it nearly impossible to extract by cleaning animals, while the shell itself is completely smooth, making it just as impossible to grip. This carapace is constructed of several compressed layers of zigzagged chitin fibres, rendering it extraordinarily durable, preventing it from being easily pierced by distributing the forces exerted on a single point across the entire surface. The adults are therefore much more well-defended against predators than a basic skin mite (although they can still be caught by especially quick cleaning animals before they can anchor themselves), rendering a well-established colony very difficult indeed to be rid of. However, their larvae are much more vulnerable, as their carapace is much less durable and they cannot hold as strong a grip as the adults. This is compensated for by their sheer numbers and their much more cryptic colouration, but the adults, which otherwise completely ignore the larvae and nymphs, do have another defence to help their offspring reach maturity (which takes about three weeks from hatching).

The mites get their name from their brilliantly iridescent shells, which are used for visual communication. But not between members of their own species, as their vision is poor and they cannot even discern colour, relying primarily on sensory hairs for navigation. Its bright bands of mesmerizing colour and highly reflective surface make the carapace easily noticeable even from some distance (a skuorc with a heavy infestation often looks like it's glittering all over), and this attracts the attention of another sort of arthropod, which knows what it signals. Vespers, a sort of wasp-like flying ant, which are attracted to the twinkling of the adult mites, and help guard the vulnerable larvae from predators with their venomous stings. In exchange, they can nudge the larvae to make them excrete a fat-rich lipid emulsion that the vespers use for sustenance and feed to their own larvae, a reward that makes guarding the young of a completely unrelated species worth it to the insects, although it is completely unhelpful to the unfortunate skuorc, which would surely want nothing more than to be rid of the mites. The biggest threat to glimmermites is actually even smaller hyperparasitic mites, which can decimate them given the proper conditions, something that is much more likely when their population density is higher, and so keeping their numbers in check in a complex web of ecological interactions.

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Description

Many millions of years before the first canaries were ever seeded upon Serina's fertile eternal pastures, they and their fore-bearers and their fore-bearers' fore-bearers were inflicted by dermal parasitic mites, a pestilence that has followed them long since before the first birds even existed and continued to follow them in Serina's twilight, many hundreds of millions of years hence. No matter the form, size, or habitat, their parasites followed unerringly. The giant skuorcs are no exception, the loss of feathers and re-evolution of scaly skin was little issue, and their great sizes provided far more environment for them to proliferate. But it did present one challenge: with no shaggy integument to hide in, they were exposed to the elements, and of course predators, which swarm about the skuorcs endlessly, the countless parasites infesting their bodies allowing many species to specialize in cleaning them. And so began a strange sort of arms' race on this new sort of ecosystem, where even being a verminous leech is living life on the edge.

Glimmermites are a subgroup of ectoparasitic mite which do not suck blood, but feed on keratin, a substance most animals cannot effectively digest or derive nutrition from. At its base, keratin is constructed of protein chains, similar to flesh, but the polypetide bonds that create keratin are more difficult to break apart than other protein types, and keratin occurs in far smaller quantities in an animal, so fewer animals are adapted to subsist on it. For diminutive invertebrates like mites or insects, the relatively small amount of keratin available is no issue due to them already being very small, and with many other ectoparasites of skuorcs already specialized to consume the host's blood or flesh, at least a few groups have avoided competition with them by subsisting on the scaly skin surface itself, as well the spines, osteoderms, and quills that erupt from it in many giant skuorc species. Digestive enzymes secreted through their saliva help break down the keratin between being scraped up by mandible-like pedipalps. Although, glimmermites will also feed opportunistically from open wounds, or incisions created by specialized blood-drinking parasites able to open up the host's thick hide. The opaline glimmermite is a typical species, noted for its dark shell that shimmers bluish-purple, and can reach up to two centimetres in diameter.

In normal population densities, the glimmermites are largely harmless, as they don't naturally spread disease as many hematophagous micropredators do and they are so small that what damage they do individually is entirely negligible. However, as mites, they are naturally prolific breeders, with females producing up to five eggs in a single day, every day for their entire adults lives, and can easily overgraze, causing mange-like conditions and irregular shedding. Afflicted skuorcs can be easily recognized by patches of skin stripped down to the underlying pink dermis, which often become inflamed and infected due to secondary stresses by exposure, which is itself obviously visible by reddish bruising, oozing pus, and pimples around the overgrazed skin patches. The glimmermites' habit of feeding on already opened wounds and feeding on scabs also impedes healing and can expose their hosts to disease far more frequently. Other, more harmful ectoparasites often take advantage of overgrazed patches to more easily access blood vessels and muscle tissue and themselves proliferate, meaning the glimmermites can cause a cascade effect leading to poor health in their host if their numbers are left unchecked, even if they are just a minor irritant at worst by themselves.

Adult glimmermites are rather difficult to remove due to their namesake hard shells, a single sheet of glossy chitin which covers their entire bodies like an impenetrable shield. The edge of this carapace is serrated, allowing the mite to wedge itself into the grooves and irregularities of the skin, which, along with its strongly hooked feet, make it nearly impossible to extract by cleaning animals, while the shell itself is completely smooth, making it just as impossible to grip. This carapace is constructed of several compressed layers of zigzagged chitin fibres, rendering it extraordinarily durable, preventing it from being easily pierced by distributing the forces exerted on a single point across the entire surface. The adults are therefore much more well-defended against predators than a basic skin mite (although they can still be caught by especially quick cleaning animals before they can anchor themselves), rendering a well-established colony very difficult indeed to be rid of. However, their larvae are much more vulnerable, as their carapace is much less durable and they cannot hold as strong a grip as the adults. This is compensated for by their sheer numbers and their much more cryptic colouration, but the adults, which otherwise completely ignore the larvae and nymphs, do have another defence to help their offspring reach maturity (which takes about three weeks from hatching).

The mites get their name from their brilliantly iridescent shells, which are used for visual communication. But not between members of their own species, as their vision is poor and they cannot even discern colour, relying primarily on sensory hairs for navigation. Its bright bands of mesmerizing colour and highly reflective surface make the carapace easily noticeable even from some distance (a skuorc with a heavy infestation often looks like it's glittering all over), and this attracts the attention of another sort of arthropod, which knows what it signals. Vespers, a sort of wasp-like flying ant, which are attracted to the twinkling of the adult mites, and help guard the vulnerable larvae from predators with their venomous stings. In exchange, they can nudge the larvae to make them excrete a fat-rich lipid emulsion that the vespers use for sustenance and feed to their own larvae, a reward that makes guarding the young of a completely unrelated species worth it to the insects, although it is completely unhelpful to the unfortunate skuorc, which would surely want nothing more than to be rid of the mites. The biggest threat to glimmermites is actually even smaller hyperparasitic mites, which can decimate them given the proper conditions, something that is much more likely when their population density is higher, and so keeping their numbers in check in a complex web of ecological interactions.

---

This post could be seen months earlier on Patreon ; consider subscribing if you'd like to support me!