MancJiester Memoirs, Vol. Hi. (1908), No. 5. 



V. On a new Phytophagous Mite, Lohmannia insigms, 

 Berl. var. dissimiUs n. var., with notes on other 

 species of economic importance. 



By C. Gordon Hewitt, M.Sc, 



Lecturer in Economic Zoology ^ University of Manchester. 

 Received and Read December loth, igoy. 



The species of mites to which these notes refer have 

 been sent to me for identification during the past two 

 years, and as one of them is a new and interesting 

 variety, and the other two species are of some economic 

 importance, these notes have been written. 



LoJiinannia insignis, Berlese var. dissii/iilis, n. var. 



The Oribatidac, to which family of the Acarina this 

 mite belongs are phytophagous, and in the adult stage 

 usually possess tracheae. Tlie anterior portion of the 

 body, the cephalothorax, is usually divided from the 

 abdomen by a transverse constriction. On the dorsal 

 side of the cephalothorax a pair of pseudostigmatic organs 

 are borne by a pair of stigmatic-like tubes, the pseudo- 

 stigmata. 



The species, Lohniajinia insignis, of which this is a 

 new and distinct variety, was recorded by Berlese in 

 1904 ; the specimens were sent to him by Colonel F. N. 

 Halbert from Ireland. 



I obtained my specimens from some tulip bulbs which 

 Professor S. J. Hickson brought to me from his garden 

 in Withington early in May of 1907. The tulips pro- 

 duced leaves, and gradually died off without flowering. 

 On examining the bulbs I discovered considerable 

 numbers of the mite beneath the scaly epidermis of the 



faniiary lyth, i(jo8. 



