Press release from ARS. Thought this might interest some.

Mites--New Technology Aids Identification
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Hank Becker, (301) 504-1624, [log in to unmask]
October 5, 2000
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The 200-year-old study of mites--the science called acarology--is being
transformed. Agricultural Research Service experts on mites are using
state-of-the-art technology to study these microscopic insects.   Recently,
ARS scientists from the Systematic Entomology Laboratory, working with
colleagues at the Nematology Laboratory--both at the Henry A. Wallace
Beltsville (Md.) Agricultural Research Center--applied newly developed
technology, called low- temperature-scanning electron microscopy (LT-SEM),
to study mites.

Because of their small size--some no bigger than the point of a
needle--mites are difficult to study biologically.  They have many sensory
organs, mouth parts and other body parts so complex that systematists have
difficulty comparing those of closely related species.

Unlike conventional microscopes, LT-SEM images of a specimen are formed and
magnified by electrons passing through a magnetic field that functions as a
lens. The images can be displayed, and thus recorded, on a cathode ray tube
similar to a TV screen.

The LT-SEM was used to obtain, for the first time, clear, three-dimensional
images magnified more than 50,000 times. These reveal delicate structural
forms and intricate details of intact mites and how they interact with and
attack plant and insect hosts. Such information helps scientists to better
understand mites' behavior and how different parts of their body structure
actually function. It is also used to name and classify them.

Often, a lack of detailed information about mites' correct identity, biology
and ecology causes serious consequences to U.S. agriculture. More than 6,000
mite species infest nearly every agronomic and horticultural plant important
to agriculture. They cause annual economic losses estimated in the billions
of dollars from decreased food, fiber and ornamental production.

For more details, see the October issue of Agricultural Research, available
online at
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/oct00/form1000.htm