118 



DR. A. C. OUDEMAXS — A SHORT SURVEY OF 



The LiSTROPHORiD.E (Hair-Clasping Mites) attach themselves to the hairs of 

 small mammals by means of clasping organs, consisting of deformed maxillae 

 or legs. The Acarid Ji, or Sarcoptid.e (True Itch Mites) , burrow under the 

 epidermis of their hosts (birds and mammals) with their extremely short mole- 

 like feet and their short lobster-claw-shaped mandibles (fig. 19). They are 

 liable to attack both human beings and domesticated animals, causing scabs 

 and intolerable itching. The Feather Mites (DERMOGLYPHiDiE and many other 

 Families) live especially on birds, feeding only on feathers. In winter they 

 often shelter in the quills, or, transformed into short-legged, weak, cylindrical 

 bodies, they hibernate in the nostrils, the trachese and bronchi, or the lungs 

 and air-sacs of their hosts. When these mites are discovered upon a bird, 

 infected portions of the feather should be cut ofp and at once preserved in 



Fig. 20. — Chovioptes spathiferus, Megniii ; 

 female; dorsal side. — Copied from 

 Megnin, Les paras, et les malad. 

 paras., tab. 18; 1880.— A noxious 

 species. 



Fig. 2J. — Demodcx cam's, Lejdig; 

 female; ventral side. — Copied 

 from MegniD, Les paras, et les 

 malad. paras., tab. 26; 1880. 

 Sometimes noxious. 



alcohol. The Psoralgid^ (False Itch Mites) never burrow beneath the 

 skiuj but merely pierce it with their conical mouth-parts (fig. 20) ; never- 

 theless they also produce scabs and intolerable itcbing. On our domestic 

 animals, especially hoofed animals, they cause the well-known hoofscurf. 

 Their legs are long. 



(11) LiPOSTiGMATA, or Demodicid^ (Sebacic Mites), are very elongate 

 club-shaped, transparent^ extremely minute mites, which have eight very 

 short mole-like feet on the "club" (fig. 21); this club contains only the 



