160 Forty-third Report on the State Museum. [64] 



June 9, 1881. Its presence was first observed on a kitchen window, 

 and subsequently, in a box of clothing, in a seldom-used chamber, and 

 upon the walls, floor and furniture of the corner of the room where 

 the box was standing. 



Still another instance of a house infested by these "swarming 

 mites," is reported by Professor Riley, in his report for the year 1884, 

 page 413 [129], as follows: "Specimens of some of the almost omniv- 

 orous species of the mite, genus Bryobia, were sent by Mrs. I. H. 

 Easterbrook, Providence county, R. I., with the statement that these 

 insects were all over her house, inside and out, where they were first 

 discovered about the eighth of May. Mrs. E. found, under the 

 window-sills on the outside, webs, where they seemed to be hatching. 

 * * * Specimens of the same were also sent in May by 

 Mr. George N. Kimball, of Waltham, Mass., with a similar account of 

 their habits." 



Two species of Bryobia infesting and injuring meadows, have been 

 described by Mr. H, Garman, in the Fourteenth Report on the Insects of 

 Illinois, 1885, pp. 73, 74; and in Insect Life, 1889, pp. 277-279, Professor 

 F. M. Webster has published "Notes on a Species of Bryobia 

 Infesting Dwellings" at Lafayette, Ind., which may be identical with 

 the species upon which my present notes are based. See also an 

 article on "Late Autumnal Occurrences of Mites in Great Numbers" 

 in Insect Life, i, 1889, p. 252. 



The mites {Acarina) have received little study, either in Europe or 

 in this counti'y. Comparatively few American species are known. 

 Very little has as yet been learned of their habits. The division to 

 which the common " red spider " belongs, known as " spinning-mites," 

 from the fine, almost invisible web that they construct, are found on 

 plants, and are believed to be entirely vegetarian, while the harvest 

 mites, to which Bryohia pertains, are, in part, predaceous and carnivor- 

 ous. These latter are often found in vast numbers out of doors, in 

 fields, on various plants, under stones, on gravel walks, on pieces of 

 wood, in damp moss and decaying leaves, on the sand of river banks, as 

 parasitic on insects and other animals, etc. No satisfactory reason 

 can be assigned for their entering dwellings-houses in such numbers 

 as above reported. It is not probable that their natural food is found 

 in sufficient abundance in such localities. It would seem that their 

 entrance is usually made through a window, and it may be that their 

 intrusion is merely for the purpose of securing a sheltered place 

 where they may oviposit (their breeding on curtains and edges of 

 carpets is mentioned in the communication from Napoleon^ Ohio). 



