_IIARVEST MITES. : 17 
The only mite that is known to attack man, and whose appear 
ance is at all familiar, is the itch mite (Acarus scabiei Linn.). 
We have, however, in the southwestern States, two other mites 
which cause great annoyance from harvest time-till into October, 
to people who frequent the rank herbage and grass in our forest 
openings or along our rivers. Both of them are six-legged, 
reddish, microscopic specks, and both are popularly termed 
jiggers; but as this term is universally applied to the more 
dangerous Pulex penetrans (a true flea occurring in Central Amer- 
ica but not in the United States), and as a European mite (Leptus 
autumnalis), having similar habits to ours, is there popularly called 
“ harvest bug,” we may apply to our species the term “harvest 
mites.” 
Before we can talk intelligently and definitely of anything that 
moves or has a being upon our earth, it must receive some scien- 
tific appellation. According to my friend, A. S. Packard, Jr., 
and from our present knowledge of the transformation of mites, 
we may very plausibly conclude that these six-legged forms are 
but the young of -some eight-legged form such as Trombidium, to 
which belongs our common “ red spider.” Now it is contrary to 
all scientific usage to name and describe a species from its imma- 
ture characters; but the older authors not only described these 
six-legged mites as perfect animals, but referred the different forms 
to different genera. Therefore, as it is important that such com- 
mon and annoying pests should have a “ local habitation and a 
name,” and as they are so far only known in the six-legged state, 
I shall provisionally, and for the sake of convenience, name them. 
Should any future arachnologist learn the true life history of either, 
he may, of course, recognize or reject these names as he sees fit. 
The American Harvest mite* (Leptus Americanus? n. sp. Fig. 
5 a). — This species is barely visible with the naked eye, moves 
readily and is found more frequently upon children than upon 
adults. It lives mostly on the scatp and under the arm-pits, 
but is sometimes found on the other parts of the body. It does 
not bury itself in the flesh, but simply insinuates the anterior part 
of its body just under the skin, thereby causing interse irritation, 
followed by a little red pimple. As with our common ticks, the 
* Color brick-red, slender, ovate, the narrow, anterior end bifid, and furnished with 
stiff, converging sete. Six-legged; legs long. tl front pair blunt and slightly thickened 
M “e wern they are incurved and thickly armed with SE bahe: he sai rather 
fureate claw. Average length -008 
2 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VII. 
