2 THE CLOVER MITE. 



trees, feeding upon and often destroying them ; besides, during winter 

 and spring it frequently swarms in dwellings, often crawling about 

 in myriads over windows, furniture, pictures, curtains, etc. 



The species was first described in 1885,^ but it was observed in great 

 abundance about Washington, D. C., by Mr. Theodore Pergande, of 

 the Bureau of Entomology, as earl}^ as 1878. "\'Miile described as a 

 clover-infesting species, having been found infesting clover leaves by 

 both Mr. Pergande and Prof. H. Garman, yet taken as a whole 

 throughout its known area of distribution it is probably of more im- 

 portance to the fruit grower than it is to the farmer. '\^Tiile east of 

 the semiarid region it is found largely on clover and bluegrass, it 

 is at present largely an orchard pest west of about longitude 100°. 



Fig. 2. — Map showing the distribution of the clover mite {liri/ubiii iiratensis) in the 

 United State:^ in 1011. (Original.) 



DISTRIBUTION. 



With the possible exception of Georgia the pest seems to occur 

 generally over the whole country, except perhaps in the Gulf States 

 and the Dakotas, though just why it should not be found even there 

 can not now be explained. (See maf), fig. 2.) Mr. Marlatt- states 

 that it has been reported from Tennessee, and in the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains in California and Rocky Mountains in Montana at ele- 

 vations of from T.OOO to 8,000 feet, but exact localities are not given. 



The mite was described from the leaves of red clover {Tr! folium 

 pmtense) from which it derives its last or specific name. Accom- 



1 Fourteenth Rept. St. Ent. 111., pp. 73-74, 1886. 

 2Cir. 19, Div. Ent., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1897. 



