CHAPTER XI. 



MITES AND TICKS. 



BUT few naturalists have busied themselves with the study of 

 mites. The honored names of Hermann, Von Heydcn, Duges, 

 Dujardin and Pagenstecher, Nicolet, Koch and Kobin, and the 

 lamented Claparede of Geneva, lead the small number who haVe 

 published papers in scientific journals. After these, and except 

 an occasional note by an amateur microscopist who occasionally 

 pauses from his "diatomaniacal" studies, and looks upon a mite 

 simply as a "microscopic object," to be classed in his micro- 

 graphic Vade Mecum with mounted specimens of sheep's wool, 

 and the hairs of other quadrupeds, a distorted proboscis of a 

 fly, and podura scales, we read but little of mites and their 

 habits. But few readers of our natural history text-books learn 

 from their pages any definite facts regarding the affinities of 

 these humble creatures, their organization and the singular 

 metamorphosis a few have been known to pass through. We 

 shall only attempt in the present article to indicate a few of the 

 typical forms of mites, and sketch, with too slight a knowledge 

 to speak with much authority, an imperfect picture of their 

 appearance and modes of living. 



Mites are lowly organized Arachnids. This order of insects 

 is divided into the Spiders, the Scorpions, the Harvestmen 

 and the Mites (Acarina). They have a rounded oval body, 

 without the usual division between the head-thorax and abdo- 

 men observable in spiders, the head-thorax and abdomen being 

 merged in a single mass. There are four pairs of legs, and the 

 mouth parts consist, as seen in the adjoining figure of a young 

 tick (Fig. 142, young Ixodes albipictus), of a pair of maxilla3 

 (c), which in the adult terminates in a two or three-jointed 

 palpus, or feeler; a pair of mandibles (ft), often covered with 

 several rows of fine teeth, and ending in three or four larger 

 (116) 



