ugly little bugger isn't he?
Mite, common name for some 30,000 species of minute, usually oval-bodied arachnids . They are worldwide in distribution. Mites resemble ticks in having the head, thorax, and abdomen fused into one unsegmented body, but they are usually much smaller. They often have three pairs of legs in the larval stage and four pairs of legs in the nymph and adult stages. The mouthparts are adapted for piercing. Like most arachnids, mites breathe by means of tracheae (small tubes opening on the surface of the body), and they live in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Many are animal parasites; some, which subsist on vegetation, produce galls on plants. They are economically and medically injurious, because they carry diseases affecting livestock and humans.
that is the definition in encarta.
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