7 
In the publication of Messrs. Hunter and Hinds previously re- 
ferred to, some information is given relative to an attempt to use 
this mite artificially in overcoming the boll weevil. It has been ex- 
perimented with quite extensively by Prof. A. L. Herrera and his 
assistants of the Mexican Commission of Parasitology, and upon his 
return from a trip to Mexico in the fall of 1902 Mr. Hunter brought 
with him, through the kindness of Professor Herrera, a supply of the 
parasites, from which others were reared for experimental work in 
Texas. This experiment, however, owing to conditions beyond the 
control of man, appears, fortunately perhaps, not to have resulted 
satisfactorily. One of the principal obstacles in this case seems to 
have been that, where the mites succeeded in establishing themselves, 
they were subsequently destroyed by the attacks of small ants. 
These references show quite clearly the wide distribution of this 
mite throughout the United States and its great variety of host 
insects. We have, in later years, come to consider it a very useful 
parasite and one that is likely to attack almost any soft-bodied 
larva to which it can gain access and be secure from other preda- 
ceous insects and adverse meteorological conditions. 
THE MITE PROVES NOXIOUS TO MAN. 
As indicated in the earlier portion of this paper, either this or 
some other closely allied species has long been known to occasionally 
attack man and animals in Europe, when these are engaged in 
handling or come into contact with grain or straw infested by their 
host insects. The first instance of this character to be noted in 
America, however, has been communicated to the writer by Dr. 
Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, Pa. It was about the year 1896, 
while Doctor Skinner was practicing medicine in Philadelphia, that 
the owner of a boarding house in one of the New Jersey suburbs of 
the city came to him in great distress, stating that the tenant and 
keeper of the boarding house, which accommodated about seventy- 
five persons, would not pay the rent thereon, and further stated that 
the tenant had been threatened with legal proceedings by the board- 
ers, who had even suggested bodily injury. The occasion of all this 
trouble was an epidemic of a rashlike disease, the causes of which 
were suspected to reside in the mattresses of the beds occupied by the 
patrons of the house, because the occupants had been attacked by 
a very mysterious and aggravating skin eruption. The owner sub- 
mitted straw dust and mattress débris taken from the suspected 
beds, and on examination of this Doctor Skinner found specimens of 
this mite. The house was promptly deserted by the boarders, none 
of whom, as it seems, escaped infection, and none of whom was 
28455—Cir. 118—10——2 
