15 ] 



IV. Notice of the Harvest- Bug. By A Correspondent.* 



Acarus autuvinalis, Shaw. 

 Acariis Ricinus, Latreille. 

 T F powers of annoyance form a claim to attention, there is 

 ^ none superior to that possessed by the minute insect known 

 in England as the Harvest-bug, and on the Continent, where, 

 according to Latreille's personal experience, its effects are 

 equally serious, as la Louvette. 



No good description of it is however extant, and the en- 

 o-raving in Shaw's work bears a very slight resemblance to 

 nature, owing doubdess to the extreme difficulty of obtaining 

 specimens of an insect so nearly invisible to the naked eye. 

 Having been so fortunate as to procure several uninjured 

 harvest-bugs, and having 

 submitted them to a high- 

 ly powerful magnifier, so 

 as to make a drawing, 

 which underwent many 

 comparisons with the liv- 

 ing subject, and is as cor- 

 rect as it is possible to 

 render it, an engraving 

 from it is annexed, for 

 the examination of the 

 curious, together with 

 such particulars as differ 

 from the account of esta- 

 blished authoriues; — not 

 from any wish to cavil or 

 find fault with those who 



have done so much for entomology, but with an anxiety, 

 laudable it is hoped, to add (without punning) a mite to 

 truth. 



The Acarus in question then is a hexapod, of a brilliant 

 scarlet colour : its motion is very swift, and the only way in 

 which the observer can satisfactorily contemplate it is by im- 

 mersing the insect in a drop of water, in which it swims vi- 

 gorously-]-, and from which it cannot escape. 



The body is oval, sprinkled with stiff'hairs, and sixteen very 

 strong ones fringe the hinder part; the legs are horny, like 

 those of a beetle : each foot is furnished with two, and some- 



• Conimiiiiiciitcd by 'I'lioiiias John Hiissoy, D.D., Rector of llaycs, Kent. 

 \ One specimen was still swimming after a lapse of seven lioins. 



