SNOUTED MITES, 



145 



CASE The characteristic break in the palpi, of which we have just 

 spoken, is well shown in this species. It is scarlet, and found 

 among mosses. 



No. 2. SciRUS INSECTORUM . (^yc-rw. Mem. Apt.), (Leptus Phalangii, Ctirtis, in 

 Farin Insects).— 2. Magnified sketch of larva of ditto. 



Scirus insectorum. Copied from Hermann'; 

 figure. 



Scirus insectorum (Leptus Phalangii, Curtis}. 

 Copied from his fij^ure. 



This insect is 'described by Curtis, in his " Farm Insects," as 

 one of the correctives of the wire-worm beetle. He found it on 

 Elater ruficaudis, and it attaches itself to various other insects. 

 Hermann says he found it on Elater, Tipula, and spiders. This 

 habit has led to its being confounded with the larva of Trom- 

 bidium holosericeum, which attaches itself, as already said, to the 

 harvest spiders (Phalangium opilio). De Geer took it for the 

 Acarus phalangii, and Curtis followed him, but seeing that it was 

 only six-footed, rightly put it in the old genus, Leptus, proposed 

 for the six-footed Acari, before it was known that they were 

 only the young of other species. The true genus to which this 

 belongs, however, is easily gathered from the snouted mouth and 

 extended palpi : and Curtis's figure, which we give here, is un- 

 mistakably only an individual of the Scirus insectorum figured 

 by Hermann, not so well filled up as his specimen. It occurs 

 both in this country and on the Continent. 



