15 Microscopic Critters Hiding Among Us
Neill Lynskey
Published
03/26/2025
in
Funny
Beneath our world is another, slightly terrifying one accessible only by microscope.
Most of us learned about single-celled organisms and other ultra-tiny creatures in science class, but the world of microscopic wildlife is vast. There are mites that live on cheese, tiny creatures that spend their entire lives living on our faces, and pond life that can reproduce entire organs at will.
Go down into the micro-verse and check out the cool and creepy things we probably step on every day.
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1. Demodex
Microscope mites that live on your face. -
2. Vorticella
Microscopic aquatic creatures that use a long and slender stalk to attach itself to objects in the water. -
3. Euglena
Tiny creatures are actually a type of algae that live in freshwater. They have an eye-like structure that helps them detect light. -
4. Glossriella
A microscopic phytoplankton. -
5. Gastrotrichs
Microscopic organisms that glide around using minute spines, giving them their name hairy-backs, or hairybellies. -
6. Spinoloricus cinziae
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7. Pliciloricidae
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8. Acari
A type of microscopic arachnid. -
9. Nematoda
A free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. -
10. Diatoms
Tiny single-celled algae that live in freshwater and saltwater that produce forty-percent of the oxygen we breath. -
11. Tardigrade
They were first discovered by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them water bears. -
12. Rotifera
A type of rotifer only found in the leaves of Sarracenia purpurea. -
13. Citrus Yellow Mite
A microscopic arachnid mite. -
14. Cheese Mites
Mites that live on cheeses such as Milbenkäse, Cantal and Mimolette, and contribute to the flavor and texture. -
15. Polychaetes
Commonly called bristle worms, they are mainly found in the marine environment, from shallow waters down to the depths of deep-sea trenches.
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