Skin Mites That Mate on Our Faces at Night Are Slowly Merging With Humans - ScienceAlert

Their entire life cycle revolves around munching your dead skin cells before kicking the teeny tiny bucket.

folliculorum on humans for their survival, new research suggests, that the microscopic mites are in the process of evolving from an ectoparasite into an internal symbiont – and one that shares a mutually beneficial relationship with its hosts (that's us).

Scientists have now sequenced the genomes of these ubiquitous little beasts, and the results show that their human-centered existence could be wreaking changes not seen in other mite species.

folliculorum seen in a potassium hydroxide preparation of human skin.

Their tiny bodies are just a third of a millimeter in length, with a cluster of tiny legs and a mouth at one end of a long, sausage-shaped body – just right for scooching down human hair follicles to get at the tasty noms therein.

folliculorum have moved towards the front of their bodies, with male mites' penises pointing forwards and upwards from their backs.

Interestingly, the team also found that, at the nymph stage of development, between larva and adult, is when the mites have the greatest number of cells in their bodies.

folliculorum doesn't have an anus, instead accumulating waste in its body to explode out when the mite dies, and thus causing skin conditions.

The mites do indeed have tiny little buttholes; your face probably isn't full of mite poop expelled posthumously