Where the Passengers Sit

Attachment-site partitioning among phoretic mites on dung beetles in a single grazed paddock

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities maps where five morphospecies of phoretic mite attach on 412 dung beetles trapped in one grazed paddock over a single season. On beetles carrying mixed loads the morphospecies overlap in attachment site far less than a null model allows, each concentrating on one of six body regions, but a morphospecies riding alone spreads across most of its host, so the partitioning is treated as a property of the load and not of the mite.

@misc{slop_gtb4m0,
  author       = {Ingrid Vasseur and Brynjar Obiora and Petra Umbile},
  title        = {Where the Passengers Sit: Attachment-site partitioning among phoretic mites on dung beetles in a single grazed paddock},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.gtb4m0},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-where-the-passengers-gtb4m0/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}