12 DECIDUOUS FRUIT INSECTS AND INSECTICIDES. 
Tarsonemus ananas Tryon was determined by Tryon to be the 
primary cause of a disease of pineapples in southern Queensland. 
The mite infests the pineapple plant quite generally, as the stem of 
the fruit, deep between the bases of the leafy bracts, forming the tuft 
at top of plant, and especially the fruitlets, where, by its puncturing 
with its styliform mandibles at the base of the cavity containing the 
essential organs, an injury is produced which may be followed by the 
invasion of a fungus, resulting in the so-called ‘‘fruitlet core rot.” 
The mites are never very abundant and shun the light, inhabiting 
principally the deeper recesses of the fruit. 
Two species of Tarsonemus have been reported by Mr. A. D. 
Michael as injuring sugar cane in Barbados.? One species, which he 
calls Tarsonemus bancrofti Michael, also occurs in sugar cane in Queens- 
land. The mites were exceedingly abundant in all stages on the canes 
observed by Mr. Michael, living principally under the leaf sheaths. 
They are thought to be present in other sugar-producing countries, 
but have thus far escaped notice. The infestation of cane by mites, 
according to Mr. Bovell, superintendent of Dodds Botanical Garden, 
reduces the annual yield of sugar from 3 tons to 1 ton per acre. 
Another mite, Tarsonemus culmicolus Reuter, produces a silver-top 
disease of grasses in Finland,’ occurring especially on Phleum pratense, 
Agropyron repens, and Festuca rubra. This species has been well 
treated by Dr. Enzio Reuter. The mites are present on the grasses 
from early spring to fall, infesting the interior of the leaf-sheath, 
living on the tender stem above the highest node. While no deformity 
results, the extraction of the juice occasions the drying up and death 
of the inflorescence, which remains filiform and turns white. 
Tarsonemus latus Banks was found by Banks in some small mango 
plants in one of the department greenhouses in Washington.*| Some 
plants had stopped growth, and the mites occurred principally 
on the swollen and partially discolored tips. 
Tarsonemus pallidus Banks was found on a chrysanthemum in a 
greenhouse near Jamaica Plain, N. Y.’ 
There are numerous other species, but those cited will serve to 
show the importance from an economic standpoint of this group of- 
small creatures, and adds additional evidence, by reason of its rela- 
tionship, that our peach bud mite isresponsible for the injury topeach 
herein described. 
1 Fruitlet core rot of pineapples. Queensland Agr. Journ., 1898, p. 458. 
2 Report on diseased sugar cane from Barbados, etc. Bull. Royal Gardens, Kew, 1890, p. 85. 
3 Uber die Weissiihrigkeit der Wiesengriser in Finland. Acta Soe. pro Fauna et Flora Fennica, vol. 19, 
No. 1, 1900, p. 77. 
4Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc., vol. 12, 1904, p. 55. 
5 Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 4, 1898, p. 294. 
