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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 11 
which Wallace mentions in his work on the Malay Archipelago as 
causing him to come down with a serious disease while on his first 
visit to Ceram. For this reason we shall call this species the Ceram 
chigger. 
In this species there is a single median shield present without crista. 
There is only one pair of psudostigmata. The tarsi have two thick 
and one thinner and longer claw. Two eyes are present. 
Oudemans states that this species was collected in New Guinea in 
separate lots on the head of Goura sp., where they had fastened them¬ 
selves to the skin by the hundreds in regular rows, like paving stones. 
They had caused the feathers to fall from the infested region. 
Alfred Russel Wallace gives his experiences with a species in Ceram 
which it appears is the one under consideration. He states: “All the 
time I had been in Ceram I had suffered much from the irritating bites 
of an invisible acarus, which is worse than mosquitoes, ants and every 
other pest, because it is impossible to guard against them. This last 
journey in the forest left me covered from head to foot with inflamed 
lumps, which after my return to Amboyna, produced a serious dis¬ 
ease, confining me to the house for nearly two months.” 
Besides being found on man, this chigger has been recorded from 
Goura coronata. Authentic records of the species are from New Guinea 
and the Celebes. In addition we have Wallace’s report from Ceram 
which probably concerns this species. 
The East Indian Shrub Chigger 
[Schongastia vandersandei (Oudemans)] 
In this country the chigger-mites are found almost entirely in the 
grass, even short grass at times harboring them. In New Guinea 
there is a chigger that climbs shrubs and bushes where it is brushed 
upon the bodies of larger animals as they pass by. 
It is a bright red chigger with a single, trapezoidal, dorsal shield. 
The coxse each have one hair. The dorsal shield is convex behind; 
palpal claws two or three partate. Mandibles claw-like, long, straight 
and toothed. 
This species causes a disease known in New Guinea as shrub-itch. 
Wayfarers brush the almost invisible mites onto their bodies from the 
low hanging branches of trees or from shrubs. The mites are said to 
get under the skin, and to cause a terrible irritation. Besides occur¬ 
ring on man, the shrub-chigger has been found on Goura coronata. It is 
common in New Guinea, and probably occurs in neighboring islands. 
