OF NEW ENGLAND. 139 



slightly on the base of the inner edge, with a central row 

 of fine scales representing a median nervure, and the 

 edges of the wings are fringed with hairs much longer 

 than those on the other wing, and a little curved, thus 



fiving a graceful, feather-like appearance to the wing, 

 he hind wings are half as large, very slender linear and 

 fringed like the forewings. Legs very long and slender, 

 hardly longer than the whole body, hairy on the tibise and 

 especially so on the tarsi : coxa? long and narrow ; all 

 the remaining joints are very equal in length and size in 

 each pair of legs ; femora linear, not swollen ; tibia? linear ; 

 tarsal joints very indistinct, slender and hairy beneath ; 

 no claws distinguishable. Abdomen compressed, triangu- 

 lar, truncated broadly at the tip which is obtusely rounded. 

 In color the species is of a uniform dark piceous, with 

 pale, almost whitish legs. Length, one-ninetieth of an 

 inch. 



A species of mite is also abundant in the nests of bees. 

 According to Mr. Putnam several of our species of Bombus 

 almost invariably occupy the forsaken nests of field mice, 

 and he supposes that these mites which are of comparatively 

 large size, come from the mice. This opinion is most 

 probably the correct one. Mr. Newport has given a most 

 interesting account of a new genus of mites peculiar to 

 Anthophora which lives on that wild bee in all stages of its 

 existence, but mostly while a larva. Heteropus ventricosus 

 Newp. was found in immense numbers in the bee cells. 

 When the female mite is full grown, its previously small ab- 

 domen swells to an enormous size, so that the animals look 

 like " clusters of microscopic grapes. 77 This immensely 

 distended abdomen serves as a nidus for the young, which 

 it is probable, are born alive, as Lyonnet has observed to 

 be the case with the cheese-mite when exposed to high 

 temperatures. (It is worthy of notice that the viviparous 

 Stylops lives in a high temperature ; i. e. in the abdomen of 

 living bees.) We also learn that there are two other gen- 

 era of Acari peculiar to the Apidas; the Trichodactylus 

 Dufour which is parasitic on Osmia, and Ansetus Dujardin. 



