4 A carology 



extensively on water mites, red spiders, oribatid mites, or other groups. 

 Nathan Banks ranks as the first American acarologist, while his 

 successor at the United States National Museum, the late Dr. Henry 

 Ellsworth Ewing, contributed more on the Acarina than any other 

 American. 



At present some twenty or thirty investigators in the United States 

 are actively engaged in the study of the Acarina and the number is 

 rapidly increasing. The United States government through its agencies, 

 especially the Departments of Agriculture, Army, Navy, and United 

 States Public Health Service, is becoming more interested in acarinids 

 so that rapid development may be expected in the near future. 



Collecting: Mites are easy and at the same time difficult to collect. 

 Because of their small size many are invisible in their natural habitats. 

 For this reason, special techniques are required to capture them. Fre- 

 quently the environment of the mites is collected in the field, and the 

 mites themselves are apprehended in the laboratory; however, there 

 are certain phases of the work that are the same for all. 



Collections are of little value unless records are made at the time of 

 collection. The record should include the date, locality, name of the 

 collector, a description of the habitat, and any pertinent remarks about 

 temperature, humidity, and associated animals or plants that seem im- 

 portant. In making an entry in a notebook it is well to remember that 

 it is an easy matter to ignore irrelevant information that is recorded 

 but practically impossible to recall relevant information that was not 

 recorded because it did not seem important at the time. Each collec- 

 tion must be clearly labeled so that the collector can easily correlate it 

 with the appropriate notations in his notebook. 



Mites collected in the field may be preserved indefinitely in 85 per 

 cent ethyl alcohol. They should be placed in small vials. Vials with 

 over-all dimensions of 5 mm. by 28 mm. are obtainable from scientific 

 supply companies. After alcohol, specimens, and label have been added 

 to a vial it should be firmly stoppered with a cotton plug and put in a 

 bottle of 85 per cent alcohol. When a vial has been filled it can be 

 dropped into the stock bottle of alcohol for safekeeping. Another con- 

 venient method is to use rubber-stoppered novacaine tubes (such as 

 used by a dentist) that have been refilled with 85 per cent alcohol. 

 Most dentists discard large numbers of these tubes, and they are 

 usually willing to save them for a collector. 



Because of their small size, mites are difficult to handle. A mois- 



