SCORPIONS, SPIDERS, AND TICKS 



145 



are attached two long appendages, ending in claws, that 

 greatly resemble those of a crayfish. Scorpions are found 

 in the southern states and in tropical countries. They are 

 nocturnal in habits, remaining hidden during the day. 



Mites. — Unlike the scorpions, these animals have the 

 abdomen joined to the cephalothorax so closely that the 

 body appears as one solid, sacklike piece. The mites are 

 small animals and 

 many of them are 

 parasitic on other ani- 

 mals and on plants. 

 The so-called red spi- 

 der that lives upon 

 house plants is a kind 

 of mite. The disease 

 known as itch is 

 caused by a minute 

 mite that burrows in 



the Skm. A small Fig. 83. -Chicken mite. Much enlarged. 



mite, called the chicken mite (Fig. 83), occurs at times 

 in poultry-houses and becomes a serious pest. 



Ticks. — The bodies of ticks are like those of the mites, 

 but ticks are usually much larger than mites. One of the 

 most important pests, economically speaking, in the 

 southern states is the southern cattle tick. It is parasitic 

 upon cattle, and is the means of conveying the disease, 

 known as Texas fever from one animal to another. When 

 the female cattle tick gets ready to lay her eggs, she drops 

 to the ground from the animal to which she was attached 

 and there lays two or three thousand eggs (Fig. 84). These 

 soon hatch into what are known as "seed" ticks, which 

 eventually find their way to the bodies of cattle roaming 



hekrick's zool. — 10 



