MITES, TICKS, AND OTHER ACARI. 



503 



varies with tlie plant on which it is found, and in different individuals 

 on the same plant ; a rusty color shows maturity. This mite, like 

 most of the genus, spins a web on the back of the leaves so delicate 

 that a sino;le strand can not be seen even with the aid of a common 

 magnifier. "When the web-work is done, however, it is plainly visible, 



Fig. 2.— Trombidium parasiticum. 



Fio. 1.— Tetbantchus telakius — perfect 

 insect, male. 



Fig. 3.— Trombidium sebiceum. 



and under it the mites congregate iu numbers, and feed and multiply 

 very fast. The leaves soon look sickly, are marbled with gray and 

 yellow above, the underside being white and shiny, with recurved 

 edges. A microscope will show hundreds of mites of all ages, together 

 with unhatched eggs pasted to the web ; they are draining the leaf- 

 vessels of their sap, and choking the breathing-pores with excrement. 

 The remedies used to get rid of them are various, but sulphur seems 

 the most potent of them all. It is recommended to lay flowers of sul,- 

 phur on the heating-pipes in the hot-house, or it may be mixed with 

 soapsiids, and applied to the leaves. Plain soap and water is effectual 

 if made to reach the insect, but a bent syringe or some other means 

 must be employed to reach the underside of the leaves, otherwise the 

 mites will remain in comfort and safety through a hard drenching. 

 Luckily for the florist, they are preyed upon by other mites and in- 

 sects — the grub or larvae devouring whole colonies of them very quick- 

 ly. The cucumber, cacti, vine, etc., as well as the shrubs and herbage 

 of wood and field, support various species of this genus ; they are all 

 of similar habits while confined to vegetation, and to be got rid of by 

 similar methods. But some of them transfer themselves to the skin 

 with seeming ease, and when thus lodged cause great discomfort, pro- 

 ducing itching and redness, and sometimes erujitions similar to those 

 of the itch. Two species known in the Mississippi Valley as jiggers 

 are very annoying to those who have to expose themselves where they 



