136 HOP. 



found amongst the webs on the leaves. The larva (as it is 

 called, although the name is hardly appropriate, the " Red 

 Spider " not being an insect) hatches from the egg in about 

 eight days, and is much like the parent, excepting in having 

 only three pairs of legs ; it acquires the fourth pair with the 

 change of skin (according to M. Duges, at maturity). 



When mature the "Red Spider" is oval, furnished with 

 four pairs of legs, two pointing backwards and two forwards ; 

 the head, bod}^ and abdomen form a solid mass, by which it 

 is distinguishable from true spiders, w^hich have the abdomen 

 joined to the rest of the body by a fine stalk ; and also from 

 insects, which have the head, fore body (thorax), and abdomen 

 commonly distinct from each other, and which also, in their 

 perfect state, have never more than three pairs of legs. • The 

 head is furnished with a beak or sucker and nipping feeler- 

 jaws, by means of w4nch it draws the juices from the leaves 

 and injures the surface, and beneath the abdomen, near the 

 end of the tail, is a conical protuberance, from which the 

 threads are produced with which it forms its webs. 



The colour is various ; of transparent yellowish white, 

 orange, reddish, or brick-red, and other tints, depending, as 

 far as present observations show, on the colour and nature of 

 the food within, and partly also on the age of the individual. 



The "Red Spider" has difficulty in moving on perfectly 

 smooth surfaces, but, by means of its claws and the pin-headed 

 bristles with which they are furnished, it moves readily on 

 the under side of the leaves, and fastens its threads to the 

 hairs or slight prominences, thus gradually forming a coating 

 of web, amongst which it lays its eggs, fastening them by 

 some glutinous secretion to the threads, and under this shelter 

 a colony, consisting of many of both sexes in maturity, and 

 young in all their ages, feed and multiply with rapidity. 



The attacked leaves may be known by their greyish or 

 yellowish, somewhat marbled, appearance above, whilst 

 beneath they are whitish and shiny from the covering of web. 

 This kind of Red Spider has been found sheltered, as if for the 

 winter, beneath stones.* 



Pr.EVENTioN AND REMEDIES. — " Tliis little mitc, hardly to be 

 distinguished without the aid of a glass, works much mischief 

 in very hot dry seasons. Its efiect upon the leaves of the 

 Hop-plant was until a few years ago attributed to heat and 

 drought, and was called ' Fire-blast.' In the unusually hot 

 and dry summer of 1868 the ' Red Spider ' did immense 



* The above infonnation is mainly taken from a paper by John Curtis in the 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' vol. for 1841, and information in ' Economic Entomology,' 

 "Aptera " by Andrew Murray, i^p. b8, 8U. 



