ITCH MITES. 291 



CASE 



XV. 



Family SARCOPTID^. (Itch and Louse Mites.) 

 Skin striated; tarsi generally provided with suckers ; no eyes. 



Section I.— Itch Mites infesting the larger Mammals. 

 Genus Sarcoptes (Latreille), 



Body flat; shape rounded or quadrate; legs short, not reaching 

 far from the body, supported by chitonous appendages like the gar- 

 ters of an Italian bandit ; tarsi provided with suckers; mouth with 

 chelate nippers; but whether four or only two is still sub judice. 



The accompanying woodcuts show the striated surface of the 

 skin, the bandaged legs, and the suckers on the feet and chelate 

 nippers, described under the generic characters, and admirably 

 adapted for nipping and mining away the skin, through which they 

 make their galleries. It is a similar adaptation of structure to 

 purpose that they are eyeless; their life being, as it were, sub- 

 terranean, they need no eyesight, and therefore are provided with 



none 



Anterior leg and sucker of Sarcoptes scabiei. Mr,„fV, ^* Co ^ ^ 



Reduced from Furstenberg's figure. ^°"*'' °^ Sarcoptes scabiei. 



Ditto. 



The above figures are taken from Furstenberg's admirable draw- 

 ings. There is only one point on which some doubt as to their 

 accuracy may be said to rest, viz., the four nippers. Claparbde 

 assumes that these must be all mandibles, which is double the 

 number of mandibles found in any other known articulate, and is 

 surprised that Furstenberg should not have been startled by this 

 anomaly; and he casts about to find some explanation by which 



