NOTES ON THE BULB-MITE. 



169 



material. Others showed leaves sickly and flaccid, and in parts 

 utterly devoid of chlorophyll ; while, in a few, the bulbs them- 

 selves showed incipient signs of decay. Portions of the root, 

 taken close to the base of the bulb, revealed a curious, not to 

 say pretty, sight when examined under the microscope — they 

 were simply infested with a beautiful pearly grey mite in various 

 stages of development. Of eggs there was a multitude, and 

 sprawling among them one soon made out adult male and female 

 forms, together with a number of larvae or immature individuals. 

 The picture looked like a bit stolen from 

 fairyland, and one naturally regretted 

 that such pretty creatures should be the 

 authors of so much mischief. It was 

 really an amusing sight to see them 

 tossing and tumbling each other in their 

 apparently purposeless movements A 

 few were quietly feeding on the tiny 

 portion of root to which they were 

 attached ; but the majority seemed devoted 

 to no other purpose than one eternal round 

 of kicking and sprawling. A little patient 

 watching of their doings and transfor- 

 mations, extending over several days, 

 enabled me to relegate the voracious little 

 fellows to their proper class, and eventually 

 to call them by their proper name. What 

 I had under view was in reality the much 

 ___ anathematised and, to the average hor- 

 ( fill uX ticulturist, but little known, Eucharis or 

 g -,"* Bulb -Mite, which during the past thirty 

 (Miignifled thirty-flTe times.) years has bceu known to students of 

 i-Femaie; 2— Larva, economic entomology by at least five 

 different names, and which is now left in peace with the 

 somewhat euphonious appellation Cmpophagus echinopus, Eob., 

 meaning " the spine-footed bulb-eater." 



Its life- history is a study which those who have the 

 opportunity will profit by, if they carefully follow out and 

 compare it with that of its equally interesting congener — 

 the cheese-mite. Like all mites, the adult forms, both male and 



BULB-MITES. 



