Cosmic Dessert

This harvestman is having a bad day. Not only is he often mistaken for a spider, but he has only a single pair of eyes, his legs (which function as sensory organs in their own right) are prone to falling off, he has no venom, no silk glands, has to molt every ten days, and he's often lost in the shuffle of a possible 10,000 different species of harvestmen. But that's all in a day's work. What's really bothering this arachnid are those red parasites (I'm thinking they're mites).

As I look at this photo, I realize that if I were to come back to this planet as some other life form, probably the worst thing I could come back as is a parasite who feeds off of spiders and their kin. I can't imagine having to have my mandibles buried inside a harvestman's carapace all day long, siphoning off its juices. That's a cosmic dessert I don't wish to be served.

Thanks for the photo, Rick. I'm going to go do some really good deeds today.

UPDATE: Based upon the comments, this might be an instance of phoresy -- the benign insect equivalent of hitch hiking, rather than parasitism.