We often sit in our gardens, admiring the green lawns, colourful flowers, trees, birds and butterflies. Occasionally, we may spot a spider, ladybird or praying mantis. Yet beneath our feet lies a remarkable hidden world populated by tiny creatures known as mites. A small survey of oribatid mites in my own garden in a townhouse complex in Langenhovenpark, Bloemfontein, revealed eleven species of these minute arachnids.
In primeval forests of West Africa and Central America, as well as in the dark and hidden corners of caves in Texas, plods along a little-known, enigmatic, small and blind arachnid in search of prey. It belongs to the smallest arachnid order, the Ricinulei, and is commonly referred to as a hooded tick-spider. Looking like a mix between a stout-bodied spider, a tick, a World War II tank and just a dash of harvestman, it tracks its victim by chemical scent and minute vibrations. When near, it lunges and grasps its imminent meal with two claws at the tips of the short arms protruding from the bottom of its thickly-armoured body.
When one looks at a spider, many describe the creature as creepy, scary, venomous or dangerous. On the other hand, many ancient cultures associated the spider with cunning, determination and creation. While scorpions and ticks also feature in a couple of ancient myths, they are not nearly as popular as spiders, with even the scientific name of the taxonomic class that includes all arachnids, Arachnida, named after a character from an ancient Greek myth (Arachne).
The Diptera, or True flies, are one of the most diverse groups of insects with over 160 000 species known to science (Evenhuis & Pape 2025). However, if you ask a person on the street how many flies there are they typically answer with “too many” and can usually name about five: house flies, blow flies, mosquitos, crane flies (usually wrongly assumed to be long-legged mosquitos) and horse flies.
The Tristan da Cunha Archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean comprises Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha, Nightingale Island, and Inaccessible Island. Gough Island, located about 350 km from the other islands, is approximately 2,700 km from Cape Town, South Africa, and 3,200 km from South America, making it one of the world’s most remote locations.