202 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



their lower side and with them were seen numerous small dipterous 

 larvae, especially along the midrib and also several minute, white, 

 oval cocoons belonging to them. The larvae were of all sizes, from 

 the recently hatched ones to the fully grown. While examining 

 them I have seen one of them with its head deeply buried in the 

 back of a half grown mite which was still struggling with its legs. 

 The same kind of larvae and cocoons I have often noticed on the 

 leaves of peach trees, elder, and other plants infested with the red 

 spider but till now have been unable to observe their mode of living, 

 though always considering them to be an enemy of the red spider. 

 The larva is rather slow in its movements and remains motionless 

 for a considerable time, apparently when its hunger has been satis- 



Fig. 82 Mycodiplosis 

 acarivora, dorsal aspect of 

 head and anterior body seg- 

 ments of larvae, note the unusu- 

 ally long antennae (enlarged, 

 original) 



fied, so that often quite a number of the mites congregate around and ' 

 close to it. The general color of the larva is whitish but the con- 

 tents of the stomach are always of the more or less dark red color 

 of the mites on which thc}^ feed. 



Larva. Length 1.75 mm, stout, tapering anteriorly. Head large, 

 broadly rounded, antennae slender; mouth parts inconspicuous; on 

 the posterior portion of the head there is a pair of oblique, chitinous 

 processes extending anteriorly towards the median line and from 

 the base of these a longer pair of oblique, chitinous processes extend 

 posteriorly toward the median line and temiinate near the middle 

 of the first segment; anterior spiracles conspicuous; body segments 



