232 ELEMENTS OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



mals feed; but the alleged cases of serious or fatal poison- 

 ing of man as the result of spider-bites need authentication. 



OBDER III. PHALANGIDA. 



This name is given to the animals familiarly known as 

 "harvestmen " and "daddy-longlegs," with small bodies 

 in which there is no waist between thorax and abdomen, 



FIG. 108. Harvestman (Phala.ngium ptetum). 



and with extremely long legs. These forms feed upon 

 small insects, but are perfectly harmless to larger animals. 



ORDER IV. ACARIXA. 



Here belong the mites, in which the unsegmented abdo- 

 men is fused to the cephalothorax, and in 

 which the first two pairs of appendages are 

 modified into a piercing-organ. By means 

 of this structure, the ticks burrow into the 

 skin of cattle or of man, the itch-mite makes 

 its way into the thin skin between the fin- 

 gers, and the red mite sucks the juices of 

 plants. As a rule the Acarina are para- 

 sites, and hence the group is largely made 



Fio.109.- Cheese- to J 



mite, enlarged. up of pests. 



