2 
occurrence of the eggs massed often in such numbers as to completely 
cover the bark at the crotches and branches and sometimes over the 
entire surface of the trunk. These eggs are of rather large size, of a 
reddish color, and are conspicuous objects. When numerous the 
decided color they impart to the bark leads to their ready discovery. 
As out-of-door enemies they are injurious at times to clover and 
other grasses, including the true grasses, as blue stem, but it is to fruit 
trees that their injuries are especially marked. Throughout the Pacific 
Coast and in the fruit districts of Colorado and other Western mountain 
States the clover mite is one of the principal enemies of such deciduous 
fruits as peach. prune, plum, apple, pear, almond, cherry, etc., and the 
poplar and elm, black locust, arborvite, etc., among shade trees. As 
house pests they are troublesome from their presence merely in their 
efforts in the fall to find safe hibernating quarters and occasionally in 
their spring migrations in search of suitable breeding grounds. 
ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION. 
Attention was first drawn to this mite in 1879 at Washington, D. C., 
from its occurrence on the trees in the Department grounds and also 
on clover on lawns. It has since been reported from numerous locali- 
ties from Massachusetts to California. Northward it occurs in the Kast 
in northern New York and Canada. East of the Mississippi it has not 
been reported in the southern tier of States, the southernmost records 
occurring in Tennessee and North Carolina. 
On the Pacific Coast it is known from San Diego, Cal., to East 
Sound, Washington; and at Las Cruces, N. Mex., it is a serious fruit 
pest. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and in the Rocky 
Mountains in Montana it has been found at elevations of from 7,000 to 
8,000 feet. 
It is remarkable, therefore, for its ability to exist under marked 
differences of temperature and elevation. Its wide distribution and 
its occurrence in situations remote from settlement indicate that it is 
a native species. It was first characterized scientifically by H. Garman 
in 1885, who proposed for it the common and Latin name by which it 
is now known. 
HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY. 
The wide range of this insect and the different climatic conditions 
under which it exists lead, as might be expected, to certain variations 
in its hfe history and habits in different localities. In the more 
northern regions of its occurrence and in the higher elevations it win- 
ters in the egg state, the last brood, if it may be so, called, maturing 
in the fall, and depositing eggs on branches and trunks of trees some- 
times in sufficient numbers to entirely cover the bark two or three 
layers deep. In 1889 we received a mass of these eggs several layers 
