314 



ARACHNOIDEA. 



CASE Delafond and Bourguignon figure this species as the itch mite 

 of the goat, but there is no doubt that it is the same as that of 

 the goat and ox, and that it is found on all three is due, as in 

 the species that infests the tame rabbit, to the frequent and 

 close communication between domestic animals. It generally 

 attacks the goat about the sides of the neck, behind the 

 ears, on the back and loins, the base of the tail, &c. ; but also 

 wherever the mite happens to have effected a lodgment. It is 

 found also on the horse, attacking it at first about the pasterns. 

 It sometimes makes great havoc among goats. Delafond and 

 Bourguignon found that in the valley of Prattigau, in the Grisons, 

 Switzerland, in the years 1851, 1852, and 1853, out of upwards of 

 2500 goats the half was attacked, and 500 died. 



Genus Sarcopterus (Nitzsch). 



Confined to birds. In the two anterior pairs of legs the suckers 

 are replaced by claws, and in the posterior pairs by hairs. 



No. II. Sarcopterus nidulans {Nitzsch), {Giebel., Zeitscli. Ges. Natunv. iv. 29).— 

 11. Magnified sketch of ditto, copied from Giebel's figure. 



This species, which is 

 closely allied to the genus 

 Sarcoptes, was first described 

 and figured by Nitzsch in 

 Ersch and Graben's Ency- 

 clop. 1818, I. 249 — after- 

 wards by Giebel in his paper 

 above quoted. — It was found 

 on the lark (Alauda arvensis) 

 and green linnet (Fringilla 

 chloris). It lives in the skin 

 alone, and makes regular 

 and irregular thick yellow 

 knots, eight lines long by six lines broad. These yellow knots 



Sarcopterus nidulans. Copied from Giebel's fig-ure. 



