GAMASIDS. 165 



CASE Sejus viduus {Koch^ Ubers., p. 92, t. x. f. 50). 

 The shoulders longish, rounded 

 behind and without projecting 

 bristles. 



It is to this genus doubtless that 

 another species found by M. Duges 

 upon the leaves of Bindweed should 

 be referred. He had gathered a 

 quantity of these leaves on account 

 of the great number of Tetranychi 

 with which they were covered, and 



among them he found also a certain ^,^, ,,^,^,^ ^^e size of a smaii pm-s head. 

 number of what he has named the 



Dermanyssus of the Bindweed ; they walked freely upon the water 

 where these leaves were soaking. Their size, their general form, 

 that of the feet and the palpi, resembled those of the Dermanyssus 

 avium ; but their colour was of a greenish grey, and the intestines, 

 and even the prolongations of its feet up to the sixth joint, were 

 full of a green matter. He asks, was this matter the result of the 

 suction of the vegetable juices directly from the leaf itself or indi- 

 rectly from it after having been first swallowed by the Tetranychi 

 on which the Gamasi fed. 



The same difficulty as to their food occurs in a species which 

 M. Megnin has described (Insectologie Agricole^ 1868) under the 

 name of the F orage mite, which is found in great quantities among 

 old hay, and which, when shaken down from the rack on the head 

 and neck of the animals feeding on it occasions them considerable 

 annoyance. 



The species of this genus infest various insects as much as the 

 other Gamasidse of which we have already spoken, and many 

 species also occur in all sorts of places, and some of them even 

 lead an amphibious or semi-marine life. 



In the species with such habits, we naturally feel a more parti- 

 cular interest, for mites being land animals we may expect to find 



