ACARINA AND MYMOPODA. 



A Mite Attack on Garden Plants. 



Leaves of various garden plants showing a mite attack upon them 



were received in September, from Miss A. Goodrich, of Utica, N. Y., 



with the following note. 



For two years past I have often found the leaves of the Calla covered 

 with fine webs spun by a small mite. Last year garden plants were 

 affected. Leaves turned yellow and flowers did not open. One root 

 of Spircea was almost killed. I put it in a pail of warm suds for the 

 night, and planted it in a new place next day. This year it was not so 

 badly attacked, but the sweet English violets and the Thunbergia in 

 my window boxes suffered most. I tried hot water of 120° Fahrenheit, 

 on the violets with success. I send specimens of the mite. 



The mite is that frequent pest of garden plants and conservatories, 

 Tetranychus telarius (Linn.), commonly known as the " red spider." 

 It owes its popular name to its habit of spinning a web, and to the 

 brick-red color which it sometimes assumes — the color which so often 

 brings it under the notice of horticulturists. It may, however, pre- 

 sent a great variety of shades of green, brown, and red, dependent to 

 quite an extent upon its food-plants, although occasionally found to 

 offer different colors upon the same plant. 

 Fig. 46, after Claparede, represents it af matu- 

 rity, greatly enlarged. 



Although generally known as a spider, it is a 

 true mite. In classification it stands next to 

 the spiders, and at the head of the mites, in 

 the family of the Trombididce, which contains 

 the most highly organized species of the 

 Acarina. A distinction available in separat- 

 ing the mites from the spiders is that the 

 former are without a pedunculated abdo- 

 men. The abdomen instead of being joined 

 to a thorax by a narrow joint of attachment 

 is united to the last of the leg-bearing 

 segments without any well-defined groove /^-^^Z-^ 

 of separation. larged. 



The webs which this species and its associates spin on the under 

 side of leaves and adhering closely to them, are of an extremely 



