Two-Spotted Spider Mite

The two spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) is a plant feeding mite generally considered a pest and the most widely known member of the spider mite family Tetranychidae. Native to Eurasia, it has since acquired a cosmopolitan distribution as a common agricultural pest. Adult females measure only about 0.4 millimeters long, appearing as tiny reddish, yellow, or black spots on leaves and sometimes spinning fine webbing on and beneath them. It is extremely polyphagous, feeding on hundreds of plant species including most vegetables and food crops such as peppers, tomatoes, and beans, and in 2011 it became the first chelicerate species to have its genome fully sequenced.