123 
THE PHYTOPTI AND OTHER INJURIOUS PLANT MITES.* 
By H. GARMAN. 
The injuries to plants by mites are commonly underestimated. 
Mites are so small that their presence is often not perceived until 
the injury has been done, and we sometimes look for the cause only 
to find the empty skins left by our minute enemies. The fact 
that injuries from this source usually give the plants the appear- 
ance of being diseased, while there are none of the ordinary 
marks of their having been attacked by insects, has led to some 
dispute as to the part mites take in bringing about the diseased’ 
appearance. The testimony of the more intelligent gardeners and 
horticulturists, both of Europe and the United States, and of those 
who have given the subject special study, should bear a good deal 
of weight, and upon its authority mites are not only injurious to 
plants, but in some cases do ‘‘enormous” damage. Plant-feeding 
mites have long been known in Kurope as committing depredations 
on some of the most useful garden and hot-house plants. In all, 
several hundred plants have been enumerated which are subject to 
their injuries. In the United States, also, the same or similar species 
of mites attack some of our valuable garden plants and. trees. 
Very many of our native plants are also infested; and when the 
mites and the nature of their work are better known, I have little 
doubt that we shall find as many injurious species at least as occur 
in Europe, and that loss from supposed blight or killing by frost 
will in many cases be traced to the mites. 
Of damage done by mites in Europe, we have an abundance of 
evidence. ‘The linden is badly injured some years on the continent 
by the red spider, one of the spinning mites, which swarms upon 
the leaves. The same or a related species is very injurious in the 
hot-houses about Paris; and another, according to an English ento- 
mologist, ‘‘causes enormous damage, in dry seasons, to the hop 
crops.” The currant, pear, peach, vine, rose, and many others of 
the most valued trees and shrubs, we are told, are badly damaged 
at times. . 
*The present is merely peceipery to a more extended paper on the plant mites, 
which the writer hopes to prepare. I wish here to acknowledge my obligations to Prof. 
.A. Forbes for his kindness in translating Briost’s article on the Phytoptus of the Vine 
or me, and in securing for my use many of the papers on Phytopti and their cecidii. 
