170 NOTES ON THE BXIIiB-MITE. 



female, are furnished with eight distinctly pointed and, in this 

 case, bristle-set legs. The length of the female rarely exceeds 

 one millimetre ; that of the male is not nearly so great. The 

 female deposits a number of tiny eggs at amazingly short intervals, 

 and these quickly develop into sprawling little larvae, possessing 

 three pairs of legs, of which the first pair are furnished with 

 "suckers." By some naturalists these latter appendages are 

 regarded as organs of attachment, important only to the larval 

 stage. It must be admitted, however, that further investigations 

 as to their use are desirable. After a brief enjoyment of its 

 six-legged condition, the mite moults — a process which robs it 

 of its *' suckers," and gives it an additional pair of legs, the 

 number now being eight. Even at this stage there is no 

 evidence of sex, the interesting and multiform creature having 

 to undergo another mutation before one can say whether it is 

 male or female. 



Such is a brief outline of the history of a speck of animal 

 life, which, in favourable seasons, devastates whole crops of 

 hyacinths and narcissi. Although known as the bulb-mite, and 

 deservedly so, by reason of the extensive injuries it does to bulb 

 crops, it by no means confines its attention to this class of 

 plants. Among decaying vegetable matter, on roots, and even 

 among the posies on our table, it may be found by the diligent 

 seeker. On out-door plants, it is chiefly found during the 

 summer months; but, as many of our valuable bulbs are grown 

 in stove houses and are also protected when flowering-time is 

 over, the bulb-mite goes on merrily increasing among the bulb 

 scales all the year round, and when unchecked is able, by reason 

 of its numbers, to work such havoc as is recorded this season. 



