134 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[June 



old infested buds had already become black and dried up, due in part to 

 the fact that the buds had been transplanted in the spring and to the 

 ' excessively dry weather. All the old buds that were examined had no 

 living mites in them, but the dead white desiccated bodies of thousands 

 of mites covered the surface of the dead leaves of the buds. I am 

 confident they were not the effete skins, cast off by the young mites, 

 for the outline of several of the adult mites could still be traced. Had 

 the life-giving juices of their bodies been sucked out by some 

 predaceous insects, or had they died for want of food ? Of their 

 natural enemies I shall speak later on, and as to the supply of food, 

 they had only to seek fresh fields, as some had already done. It may 

 be, however, that the old stock die off annually, leaving their offspring 

 to carry on the infestation. 



May 19th — examined 50 of the old-infested buds which were sent me 

 by Mr. Gillanders, from High Legh, which were taken from bushes that 

 had not been transplanted in spring. Ninety per cent, of these buds 

 were dead and dry — a few only having their basal portions with any life 

 in them. In these there were many dead mites, which had undoubtedly 

 died a few hours prior to my receiving them, as they still contained their 

 colour and outline intact. Those buds that were quite dead and dry 

 gave the same result as previously stated ; e.g., they were covered 

 with the desiccated bodies of the mites,, and not a living example was 

 found amongst them. Strange to say, I failed to find a single living mite 

 either on the bark at the base of the leaf stalks or in the newly-formed 

 buds. My next examination was on June 2nd. At this time the newly- 

 formed shoots had begun to harden, and the new buds on the first half 

 of them had attained a length of 2-J-3 m.m., very small, but just pro- 

 truding from behind the leaf stalk. Between the base of the leaf stalk 

 and the buds at the ends of the young shoots I found both adults and 

 nymphs, but no eggs ; although these latter were not found in the 

 situations indicated, they must have been laid there, or the nymphs 

 would not have been present. 



I carefully examined a number of young buds, but found no mites in 

 them. It is curious to note that the mites occurred near the terminal 

 buds only ; this will account for such buds in an infested bush being the 

 most severely attacked. At this date (June 2nd) I could only find one 

 of the old infested buds in a living condition, and this simply swarmed 

 with adult mites. 



On July 17th I again found the mites located between the leaf stalks 

 and the buds, and with them many eggs ; while ten days later (July 27th) 

 newly-formed buds still small were present, but terminal ones were 

 already showing signs of being infested. On examination these were 

 found to contain adults, nymphs, and eggs, nearly all of which were 

 located in the centre of the buds. This was the first occasion I found 



