1 6 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol.111. 



lowing statements made by him will most assuredly not apply to 

 our American species, P. ventricosus, and if these food habits 

 exist in P. tritici, this fact alone would separate the two species. 

 On page 463 Moniez makes these statements: 



"It appears certain that the octopod nymphs can only under- 

 go e\-olution if they ha\'e at their disposition a liquid nourish- 

 ment; they must attach themselves either upon some vegetable, 

 or, in default of this, on some animal. In the case of wheat, 

 they develop upon the larvae of insects that live at the expense 

 of the grain. When the nymphs are famished, they will throw 

 themsehes upon workmen carr>-ing wheat and attack the skin. 



"Amerling, in Bohemia, did not find the mites in company 

 with parasitic insects; they can live on the grain. 



"When the cereals become dry, the mites attack animal life. 

 They are forced to quit the vegetable kingdom for the animal. 

 In this respect they act as do the Ixodes." 



From the foregoing one is led to suspect that the obscurities 

 surrounding the identity of man-attacking mites is scarcely less 

 dense in Europe than it is in this country. 



According to the observations of Lagreze- in 1849, i^ Espalais, 

 France, a number of men engaged in carrying sacks of wheat 

 experienced violent itching immediately thereafter. This wheat 

 was sent to Bordeaux and ]\loissac where workmen in unloading 

 the cargo were attacked in apparently the same manner. In the 

 latter instance the men refused to work on account of the severe 

 itching which immediately developed on the chest, amis, face 

 and shoulders. In the case of a majority of the workmen this 

 irritation of the skin was followed by an eruption of pimples 

 more or less inflamed, some of which contained a serum. Later, 

 experts who examined this grain reported the presence of numer- 

 ous mites in the wheat and after this had been washed and dried 

 in the sun, the workmen who handled it were not affected. The 

 mite involved in this trouble is now known as Pedicidoidcs tritici. 



In 1867, Robin^, in the name of M. Rouyer, communicated to 

 the Society of Biology some observations on a cutaneous disease 

 •observed epidemically in a large number of communities of the 

 department I'lndre. The peasants engaged in gathering the 



2. (Lagreze Fossat et Montane, "Sur, la Mite du Ble." Rec. Agronomique 

 de la So. dc sciences agric. et bellesletters de Tarnet-Garome, t. XXXII, 1S51 ). 



',\. Robin, (.'. R. des seances at memoires de la Soc. de biologie, 4th series, 

 t. IV, 1S07, page 178.) 



