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ON A NEW SPECIES OF MITE (TARSONEMUS) INJUKIOUS 

 TO SUGAK-CANES IN BARBADOS. 



By Stanley Hirst. 

 (Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



Mr. A. D. Michael has already recorded* the presence of mites of the genus 

 Tarsonemus upon diseased sugar-cane from Barbados. He states that two species 

 belonging to this genus were present in the material sent to him, and that the 

 larger of the two species was certainly identical with one which Mr. Bancroft 

 found doing serious damage to sugar-cane in Queensland. Mr. Michael pro- 

 posed the name Tarsonemus bancrofti for this larger species. So far as I am 

 aware, no description of this nominal species has been published and I am obliged 

 to rely on Mr. Bancroft's published sketchesf for information concerning it. Un- 

 fortunately his drawings are not executed in sufficient detail and I am not certain 

 that his mite is the same species as the one which is dealt with in the present 

 note ; but as the figures of the Queensland mite differ appreciably from the 

 Barbados specimens, it seems advisable to describe the latter under another name 

 (T. spinipes). The species of the genus Tarsonemus often resemble one another 

 very closely in structure, and they cannot be recognised with certainty unless a 

 fully detailed account of their principal characters, accompanied by careful 

 drawings, is given. Dr. Bancroft gives drawings of both sexes of his mite. He 

 does not figure any spines on the third leg of the male, but he shows a lobe- 

 shaped expansion, similar to that of T. spinipes, on the inner side of the short 

 fourth leg. The hairs of the body are not depicted. According to his drawings, 

 the body of the female resembles that of T. spinipes in being very long and 

 narrow, but is apparently much narrower at the anterior end. He represents the 

 two terminal setae of the fourth leg of the female as being both very long and 

 slender, the outer one being seemingly almost as long as the inner. The size of 

 T. bancrofti is not stated, nor is the scale of enlargement of the figures given. 



I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Gr. A. K. Marshall, the Scientific Secretary 

 of the Entomological Research Committee, for his kindness in giving me the 

 opportunity of describing this interesting acarus. The specimens were kindly 

 sent by Mr. John R. Bovell, Superintendent of the Local Department of Agri- 

 culture, Barbados. It is interesting to note that the species which were mentioned 

 in Mr. Michael's paper twenty-two years ago were also received from Mr. Bovell. 



Tarsonemus spinipes, sp. n. 



C J. — Shape of body (fig. 1 a,b) very like that of T. spirifex, Marchal. Dorsal 

 surface apparently furnished with the same number of hairs as in the species just 

 mentioned, but they differ somewhat in size and also in arrangement. Four pairs 



* Bull. Royal Gardens, Kew, 1890, pp. 85-86. 



f 2nd Annual Report of the Board appointed to inquire into the causes of Diseases affecting 

 Live Stock and Plants ; Votes and Proc. of the Legislative Assembly, Queensland, 1877, Vol. 

 Ill, pp. 1037-1062. 



26302 G 2 



