Acarapis woodi are related to ticks and spiders. They have eight legs and are internal parasites of honeybees. They live and reproduce in the tracheal tubes of the bees. The mites pierce the tracheal tube walls with their mouth parts and feed on the haemolymph, or blood, of the bees. The mites are so small that they can only be seen and identified under a microscope.
Other mites that are similar in appearance are Acarapis externus, and Acarapis dorsalis.
Source: Tracheal Mites Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service,United States Department of Agriculture,
