HOLOTHYRUS COCCINELLA 



359 



many mammals. The Dermanyssus gallince is the same as D 

 avium. The species found in swallows' nests is also said to be 

 the same. This mite can remain for weeks without any food 

 from its normal host. They only attack man when entering or 

 cleaning dirty and neglected fowl houses ; upon him they do not 

 produce a true dermatosis. They chiefly attack the back of the 

 hands and forearms of those who constantly attend poultry and 

 give rise to symptoms similar to the papular eczema of scabies. 

 That they may remain some time upon the human body we know 





FIG. 234. Dermanyssus gallinat 

 (enlarged). (After Berlese.) 



FIG. 235. Dermanyssus hirundinis. 

 40/1. (After Delaforid.) 



from the following cases out of many recorded : Geber observed 

 that the Dermanyssus had caused a diffused eczema on a woman, 

 which lasted four weeks and then disappeared. The Tique of F. Y. 

 Raspail is the bird Dermanyssus ; he records children and adults 

 being attacked not only when handling pigeons, but even when 

 walking in a garden manured with pigeons' dung. The affection 

 soon disappeared when the pigeons were destroyed and the excreta 

 buried, I have frequently heard of poultrymen being seriously 

 attacked by this pest. F. V. T.] 



Holothyrus coccinella, Gervais, 1642. 



Measures 5 mm. in size ; lives on birds in the island of Mauritius ; 

 ducks and geese frequently fall victims to its bite ; it also 

 attacks human beings, on whose skin it causes severe burning 

 and swelling, but no reddening ; it may be dangerous to chil- 

 dren, especially by settling in the oral cavity. 1 



' Gervais, P., " 15 esp. d. Insect, apt." (Ann. soc. ent France, 1842, xi p. 14) ; 

 Megnin, R, " Un acarien dan<>ereux de Vile Maurice " (C. R. soc. biol., F 

 v., p. 251). 



