Tetranychus spp. and peach silver mite, Aculus cornutus, are distributed randomly within the foliage of almond trees. Both, however, have extremely clumped patterns of distribution on a per leaf sample unit. The pattern of distribution for Tetranychus spp. was additionally affected by the phytoseiid mite, Metaseiulus occidentalis, the pattern being less clumped with the predator present. M. occidentalis was considerably less clumped than observed for the other mites. Additional analyses indicate that, except at low Tetranychus spp. densities, approximately one M. occidentalis per ten Tetranychus is sufficient to reduce the prey density 2 weeks hence. The distribution relationships in this paper provide a framework for development of a quantitative Tetranychus spp. monitoring program, presented in the following paper.