. The Acarina or mites. A review of the group for the use of economic entomologists. Mites. Fig. liS.—Pneumonysus: Beak, claws, and stigmal plate. (Author's illus- tration.) ' most, if not all, of these myrmecophilous forms are scavengers, and their presence use- ful to the health of the colony. The ants sometimes take care of the mites when the nest is disturbed, and carry them to a place of shelter. One species of Hypoaspis {H. equitans Michael) was frequently observed to jump up on an ant and ride about for a while, the ant taking no notice of its rider. It appears that each species of mite
. The Acarina or mites. A review of the group for the use of economic entomologists. Mites. Fig. liS.—Pneumonysus: Beak, claws, and stigmal plate. (Author's illus- tration.) ' most, if not all, of these myrmecophilous forms are scavengers, and their presence use- ful to the health of the colony. The ants sometimes take care of the mites when the nest is disturbed, and carry them to a place of shelter. One species of Hypoaspis {H. equitans Michael) was frequently observed to jump up on an ant and ride about for a while, the ant taking no notice of its rider. It appears that each species of mite prefers to live with a certain species of ant, but several kinds of mites hive been found in the same nest. The mites disappear when the ants desert the nest. Fully 50 of these m>Tmecophilous mites are known from Europe, a number from Australia, South Africa, and South America, but few from this country. The classification of this family adopted by Berlese and some other European acarologists is very unsatisfactory, since most of the divisions are based on characters observ- able in but one sex. A genus should hardly be based on such characters, certainly not a subfamily. His classifica- tion is about as : 1. Male genital opening in front of the sternal plate 2 Male genital opening in the sternal plate 4 2. Second legs of male lai'ger than in the female, and with .Parasitix^. Second legs equal in both sexes 3 3. The adult is fully chitinized L^laptin^. The adult is weakly chitinized Dermanyssin^. 4. The female genital opening between sternal and genital plates Zerconin^. The female genital opening in the sternal plate Uropodin^. The group Dermanyssinse has long been recognized, and seems upon appearances to be a natural group, but every character so far suggested to separate it from the Parasitinae or Laelaptinae is hardly of ge- neric value. I have kept it on the un- armed mandibles, but this is but little better than the other characters, and the gi'
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