104 
BRITISH GALLS 
spring, either by crawling or by fastening themselves to 
other creatures. 
“ During their migration period, which is from the middle 
of May to the middle of June, they exhibit curious methods 
of locomotion; the four short anterior legs are ill-adapted 
for walking, and yet they continually crawl about at a rate 
of twelve to fifteen times their own length in a minute. But 
this only takes them from bud to bud at the farthest; they 
get carried farther afield by passing insects and spiders, to 
which they adhere first by the stickiness of their bodies, and 
then by curling round a hair or antenna in a worm-like 
fashion, and holding on tenaciously. This can be shown by 
lightly touching an open infested bud with a fine camel’s- 
hair brush, when the little white creatures will be found 
wriggling among the bristles, yet holding on in a determined 
manner. Their third method of getting about the world is 
the most interesting. If one watches a community of these 
mites in a bud under a microscope, one sees them con¬ 
tinually standing up on their tails, waving the front legs 
agitatedly; then they suddenly disappear, and at first it is 
hard to imagine what has happened precisely. The dis¬ 
appearance is not so accidental as it seems; the animals are, 
in fact, leaping! The two tail bristles act as springs, and 
the mite covers about sixteen or twenty times its own length 
at a jump. It is always seen that after standing upright, 
waiting for a friendly insect to carry it off on its unsuspect¬ 
ing body, the mite ceases to wave its legs, remains rigid for 
a moment, and then launches itself forth, torpedo-like, into 
space. It is an entertaining spectacle to watch, for occa¬ 
sionally by retaining too firm a hold on the bud, the leap is 
rendered abortive, and the mite simply falls backwards with 
considerable impetus instead of making a clear jump. It is 
a suggestive fact that while the mites remain upright for 
minutes in the still air of a room, yet they can be induced 
to leap at once by blowing upon them. It seems, therefore, 
that they first try to get an obliging insect to carry them 
away, and, failing this, take advantage of a puff of air to 
