GLYCIPHAGUS 377 



Glyciphagus prunomm, Her., and Gl. domesticiis (De Geer). 



The Glyciphagi are differentiated from the Tyroglyphi in 

 that the chitinous hairs on the body are toothed 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. 1 



[Sugar merchants and grocers are frequently troubled by 

 swarms of these acari, which leave their- stores when being 

 handled, especially shopmen, who handle sugar kept in small 

 stores for some time. These are the acari that cause that irritating 

 temporary affection known as " grocer's itch." 



Glyciphagus cursor, Gervais. 



Under this name Signor Moriggia 2 figures a horny excrescence 

 of gre.at length growing from a woman's hand, and containing in 

 its cavities quantities of Acarus domesticus. It seems that this 

 species is really G. cursor. 



Glyciphagus buski, Murray. 3 



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 

 feet. It appeared that the disease was caused by its burrowing 

 beneath the thick cuticle. The disease was attributed to the 

 wearing of a pair of shoes which had been lent to another negro 

 whose feet had been similarly affected for nearly a year. The 

 negro to whom the shoes were lent came from Sierra Leone. Mr. 

 Busk stated that some water brought by Dr. Stranger from the 

 river Since, on the coast of Africa, contained one nearly perfect 

 specimen, and fragments of others very similar if not identical with 

 this Acarus. Mr. Busk adds that he had been informed by Staff- 

 Assistant Surgeon P. D. Murray that at Sierra Leone there is a 

 native pustular disease called craw-craw a species of itch breaking 

 into open sores. 



From Busk's original figure I see no reason to doubt that this 

 is a Glyciphagus. F. V. T.] 



1 Perrier, E., " Cas de paras, passager du Glyciph. dom." (C. R. Ac. sc., Paris, 1896, 

 cxxii., p. 859). 



2 Atti. A cad. Set., Torino I., p. 449, 1867. 



8 Cooper and Burk's Microscopic Journal, 1842, and " Economic Entomology," 

 Murray, p. 280. 



