Mites!

Velvet Ground Mite

For the longest time I could only refer to the arthropod pictured above as "that red fuzzy bug, do you know the one I mean?" Then Julia told me they were her favorite, so I started referring to them as "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"

Eventually I learned their name in Pulaar. This is a more difficult task than you'd think, because they only come out after a heavy rain, sometimes. I was walking through the village one day when the little girl walking next to me gave a happy shout and yelled, "Sampulu has come!" At first I thought Sampulu was some dear friend she hadn't seen in forever, but when she pointed to the red bug on the ground I realized "sampulu" is Pulaar for "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"

So the kids and I stopped to watch Sampulu crawling along the ground. I asked a kid if it would bite me and when he said no, I went to pick one up. I wanted to know if they felt as soft and cuddly as they looked. But the girl shouted, “Stop! Don’t kill it! If you kill it, tomorrow…” Here, the ellipsis does not represent the girl's voice trailing off, it represents her using Pulaar words I didn't know the meaning of. However, I could tell from her tone that it was something bad.

You may have noticed the caption to my picture. Yes, "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?" are also known as velvet ground mites. I learned this as I was browsing a bookstore one day (this was during a trip to Kombo, where there is actually a bookstore) and came across a guide to Insects and Arthopods of The Gambia. Unfortunately, not many people have heard of velvet ground mites, so I will probably continue to refer to them as "Julia's favorite bugs, the ones that are red and fuzzy, do you know the ones I mean?"