affecting the Potato-crops. 



87 



ochreous ; scutel conical and yellow ; postscutel rough with a 

 shining knob at the base and 2 elevated lines down the middle, 

 forked at their extremities: abdomen long, elliptical, clavate, 

 attached to the thorax by a clubbed petiole ; slender at the base, 

 sometimes with a black line beneath, 7 -jointed, the 4 last seg- 

 ments black : wings ample, shining golden yellow, the hinder 

 margins smoky, superior with a pentagonal areolet; stigma and 

 nervures ferruginous: legs stout, 1st pair the smallest, hinder the 

 largest ; coxae black ; hinder thighs the thickest, black at the apex, 

 especially beneath ; anterior shanks short, hinder long, brown at 

 the tips ; feet longer than the shanks,, 5-jointed, terminated by 2 

 strong claws tipped with black, and dusky pulvilli between them. 

 Length 1 inch, expanse above If inch. The proportion of colour 

 varies in different specimens, some have only a few orange joints 

 at the base, whilst others are only black beyond the middle of the 

 antennae ■ a portion, or the whole, of the 4th abdominal segment 

 is ochreous, as well as the under sides of the coxae, with no black 

 at the extremities of the hinder thighs and shanks, in other 

 examples. 



My calendar is a proof of the abundance of the Death's-head 

 caterpillars in Kent, for I see that all my specimens of this Ich- 

 neumon were bred or taken at Rochester, Darent, and other 

 localities in that county, 1 believe in July, one towards the end 

 of that month ; but it has been bred from other Sphingidce, I 

 have heard. 



Acari, or Mites. 



On the dead haulm of the potato these little creatures con- 

 gregate for the sake of feeding upon the Botrytis or other fungi. 

 One which Mr. Graham found in March, 1846, had been no 

 doubt breeding through the winter, for they often generate in 

 cavities under stones, and a larger and darker species resides in 

 quantities under the tomato leaves in the autumn. 



They belong to the Order Aptera, the Family Acarides, 

 the Genus Oribates, formerly called Notaspis, and the potato 

 species is named, apparently by Hermann, 



20. O. castaneus. It is as small as a cheese-mite, very glossy, 

 pear-shaped, and of a rusty chestnut colour : the trunk is conical 

 and conceals the head ; it is distinctly separated from the body by 

 ,a transverse channel; the latter" is oval and dilated, being very 

 convex with a few long hairs scattered about : the 8 legs are rather 

 long and of a dirty ochreous tint, sparingly clothed with longish 

 hairs, they are 6-jointed ; the hips and trochanters are short, the 

 thighs are short and clavate, as well as the shanks, which have a 

 little joint at the base; the foot is elongated but clubbed at the 

 base, and terminated by a single long curved claw. 



