GOOSEBERRY AND IVY RED SPIDER. 97 



roadsides they became thick and matted, and quite disfigured 

 the whole Ivy. Up to middle of August a few of the mites 

 were still occasionally found." — (A. H.) 



Eeports from different localities in the course of the various 

 observations noted the attack as "very severe," "destroying 

 the bushes," "committing havoc among the Gooseberry trees 

 in the south of Sussex," and otherwise showed the mischief 

 caused by this minute leaf infestation. 



Other Allied Species. — In connection with the appearance of 

 the above-mentioned mite to an unusual extent on Gooseberry 

 bushes in this country, it is of interest to note that another 

 species, Bryohia nohilis, C. L. Koch, was observed by Dr. 

 Fr. Thomas, of Ohrdruf, in Germany, as very prevalent on 

 Gooseberry bushes (where it had not previously been observed 

 iis an infestation) in 1893 and 1894. Of this he remarks, 

 fifter some preliminary observations on weather influences : — 

 " I am of opinion that the increased amount of appearance 

 of the small red mite of the Gooseberry bushes, which was 

 observed in the course of the year 1893, and especially in 

 the spring, was a result of the abnormal dryness of that 

 year, a condition which was repeated in April and May of 

 1894." 



So far as I am aware, our infestation (so to call it) resembles 

 in all points of its life-history and means of prevention of its 

 ravages, the species, ver}^ fully described with all points con- 

 sidered, in the paper on the ' Eed Gooseberry Mite ' (' Die rote 

 Stachelbeer Milbe ') previously cited,* and here also the points 

 of distinction between the above species of Bryohia and other 

 very similar kinds, turning much on numbers of pairs of 

 scales (Schuppen) on the back or elsewhere, will be found at 

 pp. 493-495. 



But for practical purposes for ordinary observers the fol- 

 lowing short report given by Dr. Fr. Thomas at Miilhausen, 

 in Thuringia, later on in 1894, will be found to contain plain 

 and useful information. In this Dr. Thomas spoke on the 

 injury to Gooseberry bushes caused by B.rihis, n. sp., a small 

 red-brown mite of about two-thirds of a millimetre in the 

 length of the body, and demonstrated the extent of these 

 injuries by specimens which he had taken just before the 

 meeting from a garden in Miilhausen. These specimens had 

 become whitish on the upper side from the suction of the 

 mites, and the small remaining leaves had not power to 

 provide a sufficiency of nourishment ; the fruit dropped 

 prematurely, and so did the leaves in autumn. 



" The mites live from March and April until the beginning 



* ' Die rote Stachelbeer Milbe, Bryohia nohilis, C. L. Koch (?),' von Prof. Dr. 

 Fr. Thomas, in Ohrdruf (aus Wittmack's ' Gartenflora,' 43 Jahrgang, 189-1). 



H 



