108 



KEPOET 108, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



served a species in this country attached in some numbers to a fly, Platycnemis imper- 

 fecta. Other species have been found on the wings of the house fly, and attached to 

 thrips, apparently in migration. The singular genus Fodapolipus (fig. 222) of Rovelli 



Fig. 224. — Pigmeopfiorus amcricanus, from 

 below. (Author's illustration.) 



Fig. 225. — Scutacarus amcricanus, from below, 

 and claw. (Author's illustration.) 



and Grassi has but three pairs of legs; the female on hatching is similar to the male 

 figured (fig. 222), but has a long bristle at the tip of the body. After pairing she molts, 

 becomes tumid, and loses her legs, but retains a pair of clawlike processes in front by 

 which she holds to the host insect. They occur under the elytra of tenebrionid beetles 

 in South Europe and Africa. Tragardh redescribed the genus under the name of 

 Pimelohia. 



In the Tarsoneminae there are also two very distinct genera: 



1. Body broad, nearly circular, hiding the mouth parts and greater part of 



legs Scutacarus. 



Body elongate, mouth parts terminal; hind legs in male thickened, in female 



with two terminal hairs Tarsonemus. 



The species of Tarsonemus (fig. 221) affect various plants, sometimes producing galls 

 upon them. They live in colonies upon the leaf or stem at the base of flowers, or in 

 the culms of grasses. One species, T. oryzx Canestrini, in- 

 fests rice in Italy; another, T. culmicola Reuter, produces 

 ■'silver top'' in certain grasses of Finland; a similar form 

 produces the same appearance in some gi'asses of Xew Mex- 

 ico. One grass stem may contain several million mites. 

 Another species ( T. pellucens Green) does considerable dam- 

 age to tea in Ceylon. Tryon has described a species, T. 

 anasae Trj^on, as injuring pineapples in Australia. I have 

 described one, T. latus Banks (figs. 219, 220), which causes 

 galls on the main shoots of mango plants. Another species, 

 T. pallidus Banks (fig. 218), has been found on various green- 

 house plants in this country and sometimes causes great 

 damage to the flowers. Michael has recorded a species, 

 T. bancrofti Michael, as the cause of serious damage to sugar cane in Queensland. T. 

 canestrinii ^Marchal produces small, rounded galls on several European grasses; T. 

 spirifex Marchal forms elongate swellings on oats. T. spinipcs Hirst injures sugar cane 

 in the "West Indies, attacking the stem and gi\'ing entrance to injurious fungi. T. 



Fig. 226.— Im par ipes sp. 

 (Original.) 



