336 



Red Spider. 



hue, but in no case have they been found of a distinctly red 

 colour. 



In the earlier stages of their existence the mites have only 

 three pairs of legs, but the full grown insect has four pairs ot 

 legs. There are two stiff hairs upon each joint of the legs, 

 and the claws are furnished with long, stiff hairs, upon the 

 ends of which, or upon some of them, are little round balls, 

 or pads, supposed, as Murray says, " to be an essential part 

 of the spinning apparatus." The head is provided w T ith a 

 stout pair of mandibles with hooked ends for biting into the 

 tissues of the leaf, and the mouth has a sucking apparatus 

 which is inserted into the tissues. Very far behind the head 

 are the red eyes. On the under side of the mite, towards 

 the end of the abdomen, there is a " conical nipple," to 

 use Mr. Murray's words, "from which the threads of the 

 web are drawn out and guided by the motions of the mite 

 and by the action of the minute claws and hairs of the legs." 



A badly infested leaf has its under side completely covered 

 with a dense web, under which eggs are found in abundance, 

 as well as quantities of mites of all sizes feeding upon the 

 juices of the leaf. The leaf becomes yellow, and, as a rule, 

 finally falls off, when the insects escape into the earth. 

 Mites left on the leaves upon the plant retire into the cracks 

 and under the rind of the poles ; they have great power of 

 locomotion, and travel very rapidly quite independently of 

 their webs. 



This spinning mite of the hop plant differs in many 

 important respects from the typical spinning mite cited as 

 Tetranychus telarius by Murray and other entomologists, and 

 should be defined as a distinct variety, or even as a distinct 

 species. It is different in shape and colouring from 

 Claperede's figures of Tetranychus telarius, as adopted by Mr. 

 Murray, and as described by many writers. Though it is 

 admitted that the nature of the food supplies of these mites 

 may affect their colouring in some degree, it does not seem 

 possible that the differences in the food could be sufficient to 

 change the colour from very light brown— the darkest shade 

 which has been noted in mites upon hop plants— to reddish 

 or brick-red, which is the colour of the adult typical 



