GLYCIPHAGUS 513 



occurred since. It cannot be, as Latreille supposed, the cheese mite, 

 for they have been eaten by millions since, and it is strange no such 

 case has occurred again. 



[Tyroglyphus minor var. Castellani, Hirst, 



causes the copra itch in persons employed in the copra mills in 

 Ceylon. The skin of the hands, arms, legs and even body 

 becomes covered with pruriginous papules, papulo-pustules and 

 pustules near the head. The eruption begins as a rule on the 

 hands. The mites live in the copra dust. They produce dermatitis. 

 Castellani produced the disease experimentally by rubbing copra 

 dust containing mites on the skin of healthy people. Beta-naphthol 

 ointment (5 to 10 percent.) proved useful in treatment (Jonrn. Trap. 

 Med. and Hyg., December 16, 1912, Castellani and Hirst). F. V. T.] 



Genus. Glyciphagus, Hering, 1838. 

 Glyciphagus prunorum, Her., and G. domesticus, de Geer. 



The Glyciphagi are differentiated from the Tyroglyphi in that 

 the chitinous hairs on the body are fringed or feathered, and that 

 they lack a furrow dividing the cephalothorax from the abdomen. 

 They live under similar conditions to the Tyroglyphi and are 

 occasionally found on man or in faeces. 



[Sugar merchants and grocers are frequently troubled by swarms 

 of G. domesticus, which leave the stores when being handled, and 

 especially shopmen, who handle sugar kept in small stores for some 

 time. These are the Acari that cause that irritating temporary affec- 

 tion known as " grocer's itch." F. V. T.] 



Glyciphagus cursor, Gervais. 



Under this name Signer Moriggia figures a horny excrescence 

 of great length growing from a woman's hand, and containing in 

 its cavities quantities of Acarus. This species is really G. domesticus, 

 de Geer. G. domesticus has also been described by Gervais (Ann. Sci. 

 Nat., 1841, ser. 2, xv, p. 8) as G. hippopodes. 



Glyciphagus buski, Murray. 1 



[This is a mite found by Busk and named after him by Murray. 

 It was taken from beneath the cuticle of the sole of the foot of 

 a negro in the Seamen's Hospital Ship on the Thames in 1841, 

 in large sores of a peculiar character confined to the soles of the 



1 Cooper and Busk's Micros. Jonrn., 1842, and "Economic Entomology," Murray, 

 p. 280. 



