Mighty mini mite found on campus.

• Position: Organismal Biology - Osperalycus tenerphagus

It looks like a worm and moves like a worm--sort of, but it is a previously unidentified microscopic species of mite that was discovered by a graduate student on the campus of Ohio State University, Columbus. Affectionately dubbed the "Buckeye Dragon Mite," it officially is named Osperalycus tenerphagus, Latin for "mouth purse" and "tender feeding," in a nod to its complex and highly unusual oral structure.

This mite does not resemble a mythological winged dragon, but the snake-like Chinese dancing dragons that appear in festivities celebrating each new year. What it does not resemble is a typical mite characterized by a large round body and tough external surface. At 600 microns, or just over half a millimeter, the adult mite cannot be seen by the naked eye.

"It is incredibly intricate despite being the same size as some single-cell organisms," explains Samuel Bolton, the doctoral student in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology who discovered this species. "That's the fascinating thing about mites and arthropods--mites have taken the same primitive and complex form and structure that they've inherited and shrunken everything down. So, we're dealing with complexity at an incredibly small scale."

It is the fifth species from this worm-like family, called Nematalycidae, to be described, and only the second from North America. An early look at mites collected from silty clay loam soil across the street from the acarology lab suggested Bolton had found a new species. Under a...