.50 The Tea, insects of India, 



"Preparatory to the final moult the mites draw all their legs in under them, 

 beoome perfectly motionless, and appear to change from red to white; 'but no 

 change of colour actually occurs, the appearance of whiteness which the thin and 

 colourless old skiu presents being due to the access of air to the interval between it and 

 the new. 



" The male differs from the female not only in size but also remarkably in the 

 form of the body. The former sex is the smaller, and in the shape of the body resem- 

 bles a plover's egg, being broadly rounded at the anterior end and pointed posteriorly, 

 while the latter resembles an egg which is similar and semi-circular in outline and 

 nearly equal at both ends. 



" The males are most solacious little creatures, and the very remarkable mode in 

 which they couple with the female has frequently been witnessed by me under the 

 microscope. After a brief courtship, which consists in actively and excitedly career- 

 ing round and round the female for a few seconds, in caressing her with his sensitive 

 feet, and in exciting her by repeated thrusts from his needle-shaped and protrusible 

 mandibles, the male embraces the female by placing his two front pairs of legs upon 

 the upper surface of the end of her body, then suddenly dives downwards and forwards 

 beneath her body, retaining firm hold of her by means of the claws and suckers with 

 which his legs are furnished, and finally extends and recurves the end of his soft and 

 flexible body until his genital aperture, which is placed on the ventral surface 

 just in front of the terminal anus, is opposite to that of the female, which occupies a 

 similar position. 



" The mite injures the tea plant by repeatedly puncturing the leaves and pumping 

 Out the liquid contents of the epidermis ( ? and parenchyma) through the punctures 

 by the aid of the pharyngeal pump with which it, like all other arachnids, is provided. 

 A freshly-punctured leaf exhibits a regular and pretty pattern of irregular star-shaped 

 patches of light green worked upon a dark ground. The pale spots are caused 

 by the mites, and in the centre of nearly every one of them two most minute 

 punctures can only with difficulty be made out, even by the aid of a microscope. 

 In order that the manner in which the punctures are made may be understood, 

 it will be necessary briefly to describe the mouth-parts of the animal. These 

 consist of (1) a conical rostrum or beak, the sides of which are embraced and partly 

 formed by (2) a pair of short, stout and jointed palpi or feelers which end in a pair 

 of pincers, and answer to the great claw-bearing feelers of the scorpion and to the 

 first maxillse of an insect ; and of (3) a pair of jaws or mandibles, which do not enter 

 into the composition of the beak above, and in front of which they lie, but between 

 which and them, on the contrary, there exists a wide interval. The rostrum is not 

 sterrated ou the edges so as to resemble that of an ordinary tick, as it is in the Euro- 

 pean T. telarius, but on each side of the minute slit-like opening which constitutes 

 the mouth, and is placed at its lower extremity, it bears two minute cuiTcd and probably 

 movable spines. At the ends of the short fixed arms the pincers of the feelers open 

 the ducts of the glands, which furnish the viscid secretion wherewith the animals spin 

 their protective webs. The mandibles or jaws are a pair of long and delicate needle- 

 shaped rods, which ordinarily lie retracted out of sight into their sheaths ready to be shot 

 Out with lightning rapidity. It is a remarkable fact that the sheaths, which appear to 

 be none other than the basal joints of the mandibles, retain their primitive. embryonic 

 distinctness throughout life, and do not coalesce in adult life so as to form a single com- 

 mon sheath, as they are said to do in T. telarius. It is more probable that the leaves are 

 punctured by these mandibular needles, and that the two little movable spines placed at 

 the sides of the rostrum serve only to keep the sucker-shaped elevation around the mouth 



