172 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 
Recently Mr. W. L. McAtee, of the U. 8. Biological Survey, while in Arkansas, 
found the curious “thread bug,” which is often common about farm houses, 
capturing mosquitoes and has furnished us the following note: 
“ There were 3 or 4 Emesa longipes on each window screen of the house in 
which I stayed at Big Lake, Ark. Mosquitoes would accumulate on these screens 
each evening and be eaten the next day by the Hmesa. I picked up some 
Anopheles quadrimaculatus that had been sucked dry by the bugs.” 
Undoubtedly many other predaceous insects capture adult mosquitoes and 
Eysell mentions bugs (Hemiptera-heteroptera), locusts (Orthoptera), scorpion 
flies (Panorpidx), wasps and robber flies (Asilide), but we have seen no exact 
observations on these forms in relation to mosquitoes. 
MITES. 
Certain acarids are frequently noticed attached to the bodies of adult mos- 
quitoes. One of us (Howard) has quoted a letter from Mr. E. P. Salmon, of 
Beloit, Wisconsin, in which it was stated that one of these mites attacks the mos- 
quitoes of Madeline Island a few weeks after their appearance in June, and that 
from the time the little red creature appears under the mosquito’s wings the 
latter begins to lose its strength. “ After a few weeks, along toward the end of 
July, the mosquito ceases to be very troublesome and seems to be fighting with 
his parasite for his life.” The writer stated that the parasite is probably one of 
the red mites found upon flies and particularly upon the common house fly. 
Mosquitoes being aquatic insects, it was suggested that the mite observed by Mr. 
Salmon might be one of the little water mites of the family Hydrachnide, but 
that the mosquito issues from its pupa so rapidly that this was hardly likely 
to be the case. It was suggested that it might be one of the Trombidiide, the 
young of which may crawl upon the mosquito when it is at rest upon the plante 
(Howard’s Mosquitoes, pp. 165-166). 
Since that time a number of these mites have been sent in and others have 
been examined by other observers. All have been found to be hydrachnids and 
so far as known to us there is no exact record of the finding of a trombidiid on 
a mosquito. Specimens of these mites taken from a mosquito at Kanawha Sta- 
tion, W. Va., by Dr. A. D. Hopkins, have been determined by Mr. Nathan Banks 
as larve of the hydrachnid genus Fylais. Larve of an Fylais have also been 
determined by Mr. Banks upon mosquitoes from the Philippine Islands, sent in 
by Dr. Clara 8. Ludlow. Other larval hydrachnids found upon mosquitoes have 
been sent to us from the Great Slave Lake by Ernest Thompson Seton. We 
have ourselves frequently found them and it may be stated, in a general way, 
that their presence on mosquitoes is a common occurrence. Dyé, previously 
cited, gives accounts of a number of instances in which larval hydrachnids have 
been found upon adult mosquitoes in different parts of the world. These larve, 
according to Blanchard, nourish themselves at the expense of the host, and in 
certain cases undoubtedly bring about its rapid death. Interesting observations 
upon one of these larval hydrachnids have been made by Sergent, in Algeria. 
There he found that Anopheles maculipennis carried these hydrachnids in the 
