36 A 7iuals Entomological Society of America [Vol. Ill, 



to attacks of "chitrgers" than to any other cause and it is quite 

 likely that this common erroneous interpretation of the origin of 

 the eruption has prevailed generally throughout the country, 

 including the upper Shanandoah Valley in \^irginia, where the 

 joint worm was abundant as far back as 1904. It has been con- 

 fused with small-pox and more frequently with chicken-pox. It, 

 was. consequently, exceedingly unfortunate that, with the begin- 

 ning of this disorder, an institution in one of the States involved, 

 should publish an unsigned newspaper bulletin, crediting these 

 epidemicsof this eruption to the attack of "chiggers," and, further- 

 more, at the very time when Drs. Goldberger, Schamberg and 

 Rawles, as well as the Bureau of Entomology-, were exerting every 

 effort to find out the true cause of the difficulty, that a second press 

 bulletin, accentuating the first, should have been issued, and, sent 

 to every newspaper in the State, and from those copied into other 

 newspapers throughout the country. Thus it is that an entirely 

 erroneous impression has been magnified and diffused, still con- 

 tinuing to prevail throughout the country. 



In order to determine the likelihood of those handling straws 

 in the wheat field, being attacked by the small red mites, often 

 innocently mistaken for "chiggers," that abound among the har- 

 vested grain at this time, ]\Ir. Wildermuth made a number of 

 experiments to determine whether or not these mites, probably 

 Tydius sp., were liable to attack men. In no case was he able 

 to pro\-oke an attack from them, even when they were confined 

 upon the skin of his bare arm. On the other hand, examination 

 of straws from various points in Ohio and Indiana have revealed 

 the presence of Pedicidoides in the cells occupied by the joint 

 worm. This seems to entirely eliminate "chiggers" from these 

 investigations, because these were probably not present, and there 

 does not longer appear to be any doubt but what Pedicidoides 

 ventricosus is to be charged with causing these epidemics of this 

 dermatitis, and the cause of its own excessive abundance lies in 

 the outbreaks of the Angoumois grain moth among the grain 

 itself in the East and the joint womi in the wheat straw in the 

 Middle West. 



Light Thkowx Upon Other Problems. 



These investigations have illustrated verv nicelv the extent 

 to which the solution of one entomological problem will at the 

 same time also solve other problems more or less closely allied to 



