ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



15 



of their energy and intelligence to exploration 

 and research. Patrons, managers, and friends 

 have backed the journeys and researches with 

 generous gifts. Especially in the wild life of 

 South America and of Asia, materials have been 

 secured for these and for more profound and 

 exhaustive studies which from time to time will 

 be published elsewhere. 



RKORGANIZATION OF THE BOSTON 

 ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



Mayor Peters Names George F. Morse, Jr., 

 Nature Student, as Curator of the Zoo 

 and Aquarium — Reorganization Coming 



In the hope of reorganizing the service at the 

 Zoological Garden and the Aquarium, to make 

 it of greater benefit to the public, Mayor Peters 

 lias appointed George F. Morse, Jr., curator, 

 thus giving him complete management of these 

 institutions. The positions of director of the 

 Aquarium and assistant curator, for which pro- 

 vision was made in the budget at $2,000 and 

 $1,800. will be abolished. The position of cura- 

 tor of the Zoo has been vacant since 1914 and 

 the position of director of the Aquarium has 

 been vacant since 1915. During the interven- 

 ing time both these positions were occupied by 

 Assistant Curator McNeally, who resigned last 

 February. The change in management will 

 mean a saving of $1,300 per year. 



Mr. Morse is regarded as a student of nature, 

 having been closely identified with wild life of 

 New England. He is secretary of the Massa- 

 chusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 

 and president of the Massachusetts Sportsman 

 League. He served on the Fish and Game Com- 

 mittee of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1911. 

 and 191.5. He was recommended for the posi- 

 tion by former Attorney General Herbert 

 Parker. — Huston Transcript. 



AN EPIDEMIC OF PARASITFS 

 By Raymond L. Ditmars 



A considerable part of our collection of rep- 

 tiles has been destroyed during the past two 

 years by the invasion into all the cages of 

 a minute parasite that attacks the skin of 

 tin- snakes. We have carefully investigated 

 the character of this serious trouble and find 

 that the offender is a member of that formid- 

 able group known as ticks and mites — a number 

 of which are responsible for a high mortality 

 among animals of all kinds. The members of 

 this group are scientifically arranged in several 



distinct orders, and the mites come under the 

 technical head of Acarina. They are more close- 

 ly related to the spiders than the true insects 

 and a great number of the species are specific 

 parasites upon the bodies of various mammals. 

 birds and reptiles. Some are so minute as to 

 infest the bodies of insects. Upon the normal 

 host they seldom cause disastrous effects beyond 

 the annoyance caused by the existence of ab- 

 normal numbers. They are spider-like in form. 

 Some are of sluggish gait, while others are very 

 active. It is their transference from the normal 

 host to the body of another, that results in the 

 spread of various diseases that may assume 

 highly aggravated phases owing to the partial 

 or complete immunity of the former host and 

 the susceptibility of the infested victim. This 

 is the cause of many epidemics among animals, 

 both domestic and wild. 



A familiar example of the mites is that tiny 

 creature known as the harvest bug. which in 

 July, August and September is extremely 

 abundant in the southern states among broad- 

 bladed grass. It occurs rather sparingly in the 

 northern states, but in some localities is ex- 

 tremely annoying to farmers. Its specific hosts 

 cannot definitely be defined, as it has been found 

 upon reptiles, birds and insects. The female 

 is a brilliant red, and the action of the creature 

 is to burrow under the skin and deposit its eggs. 

 A livid sore is the result, which may spread over 

 an area the diameter of a silver dollar. This 

 may readily become infested by micro-organisms 

 and develop into a serious abscess, or blood 

 poisoning. The phase of life of this creature 

 indicates one of the dangers of the attacks 

 of mites, as the more formidable types not only 

 burrow under the skin in depositing the eggs, 

 but cause wounds by the imbedding of a blood- 

 sucking proboscis. It is the latter type that 

 is responsible for the spread of animal maladies. 

 The type that has caused such heavy losses 

 among our reptiles appears to be of the former 

 description. 



The presence of the parasites among our rep- 

 tiles was noted soon after the arrival of a large 

 batch of South American iguanas. These are 

 large lizards, with small, but hard scales and 

 very tough skin. The mites were noted in a 

 number of adjoining cages and an effort was 

 made to localize their occurrence and extermin- 

 ate them. While the minute forms were found 

 to be very abundant upon the bodies of the 

 iguanas, these reptiles appeared to be but very 

 slightly inconvenienced by the parasites. They 

 were cleansed with an oily insecticide and the 

 same applied to a number of infested snakes. 



