372 MR. C. WARBURTON AND MISS A. L. EMBLETON ON 
necessarily land many of the creatures on the ground, and it was 
conceivable that they sought or made some kind of shelter there 
from which a new attack sprang at a later period, or even that 
they sought the roots and set up there another form of the in- 
festation. Finally, as it transpired that here and there a resting- 
bud which had begun to show after the conclusion of the migra- 
tory period contained the mites, it seemed possible that some 
might find a temporary sbelter under the loose bark of the stem 
in the neighbourhood of such buds while still undeveloped. All 
these points were subject to careful investigation, the results of 
which may now be stated. 
Shelter under Bark. 
Unless called upon to furnish shoots on account of the exten- 
sive destruction of the ordinary buds by disease or injury, the 
resting-buds remain as almost invisible knobs under the bark of 
the stem. There is usually some loose bark in their vicinity and 
this was carefully searched for the mite, but with uniformly 
negative results. Specimens of a Lyroglyphus were found, and 
also some empty and longitudinally split shells which might have: 
been hypopal casts, but of the gall-mite not a specimen. 
Behaviour on the Ground. 
To trace the actions of such minute creatures amongst the 
precipices and chasms into which ordinary soil is converted by 
the microscope is well-nigh impossible. By preparing a specially 
fine mould the difficulty was reduced, and it was koped that any 
tendency to burrow into the earth or to encyst in sheltered 
recesses would at all events be detected. Experiments were 
made with both wet and dry earth, but here again the results were 
entirely negative. The mites showed no indication of having 
attained a desired end, but crawled laboriously among the par- 
ticles of earth, rearing themselves at intervals and waving their 
legs as though in the hope of rescue at the eleventh hour by some 
passing insect No burrowing, no encystment, no deposition of 
eggs was noted. For hours, even for days, the mites wandered 
aimlessly, becoming less and less vigorous till at length they died. 
On the dry mould they were more active at first, as the wet soil 
seemed to have a paralyzing effect for the time being. In the 
latter case the mites, hewever, lived the longer, several showing 
signs of life after the third day. / 
