250 BRITISH TYROGLYPHIDJ1. 



The Egg. Regularly elliptical, about "14 to '18 mm. 

 long, and about *07 to '1 mm. broad. 



Habitat, etc. The species is very abundant and 

 widely distributed ; it is found chiefly on dried vege- 

 table and animal matter. It swarms on hay and fodder 

 in stables, is found abundantly on cantharides, in flour, 

 meal, etc. It has been recorded in England, France, 

 Germany, Holland, Italy, etc. It probably has a much 

 wider distribution. 



The creature is very quick and active. 



G-LYCYPHAGUS PLUMIGER,* Koch. PL IX, and PL XI, 



figs. 1-7. 



Acarus plumiger, ? 1835. Koch, D. C., Heft 5, No. 15. 



? 1844. Gervais, in Walckenaer, ' Insectes 



apteres,' vol. iii, p. 263. 

 Glyciphagus plumiger, ? 1868. Fumouze et Robin, ' Recberches,' 



p. 67, pi. vii. 



,, 1882. Haller, " Beitrag znr Kenntniss der 



Milbenfauna Wiirtembergs," in ' Jahr- 

 esb. von Wiirtembergs,' p. 297. 

 1888. Canestrini, ' I Tiro,' p. 21; 'Pros.,' 



vol. iii, p. 388. 



Glycyphagus plumiger, ]884. Berlese, ' A. M. S.,' fasc. xiv, No. 1, 

 See, however, G. intermedius, fasc. xci, No. 

 10, and ' Notes,' fasc. i, p. 9. 

 1896. Kramer, ' Thierreicb,' Lief. 7, p. 146. 



The synonymy of this species and G. Ganestrinii 

 presents great difficulties. I have decided, not without 

 hesitation, to treat the present species as Glycyphagus 

 plumiger 9 although I cannot help having grave doubts 

 whether it really was the species to which Koch 

 originally gave the name. My reasons for doing so 

 are that it is quite impossible to say with certainty 

 which was Koch's species. Until 1887 no acarologist 

 who had written on the subject apparently suspected 

 that there were at least two, if not three very distinct 

 species. I had the present species and what is now 



* Pluma, a feather ; gero, I bear. 



