[Illustration: 145 _a._ American Harvest Mite; _b._ Irritating Harvest Mite; the dots underneath indicating the natural size.] The second species (Fig. 145 _b_, Leptus? irritans) is also only known in the Leptus stage. It is evidently the larva of a distinct genus from the other form, having enormous maxillae and a broad body; it is also brick red. Mr. Riley says that "this is the most troublesome and, perhaps, best known of the two, causing intense irritation and swelling on all parts of the body, but more especially on the legs and around the ankles. Woe betide the person who, after bathing in the Mississippi anywhere in this latitude, is lured to some green dressing-spot of weeds or grass! He may, for the time, consider himself fortunate in getting rid of mud and dirt, but he will afterwards find to his sorrow that he exchanged them for something far more tenacious in these microscopic Harvest-mites. If he has obtained a good supply of them, he will in a few hours begin to suffer from severe itching, and for the next two or three days will be likely to scratch until his limbs are sore. "With the strong mandibles and the elbowed maxillae which act like arms, this mite is able to bury itself completely in the flesh, thereby causing a red swelling with a pale pustulous centre containing watery matter. If, in scratching, he is fortunate enough to remove the mite before it enters, the part soon heals. But otherwise the irritation lasts for two, three or four days, the pustulous centre reappearing as often as it is broken. "The animal itself, on account of its minute size, is seldom seen, and the uninitiated, when first troubled with it, are often alarmed at the symptoms and at a loss to account for them. Fortunately these little plagues never attach themselves to persons in such immense numbers as do sometimes young or so-called 'seed' ticks; but I have known cases where, from the irritation and consequent scratching, the flesh had the appearance of being covered with ulcers; and in some localities, where these pests most abound, sulphur is often sprinkled during 'jigger' season in the boots or shoes as a protection. "Sulphur ointment is the best remedy against the effects of either of these mites, though when that cannot be obtained, saleratus water and salt water will partially allay the irritation. "The normal food of either must, apparently, consist of the juices of plants, and the love of blood proves ruinous to those individuals who get a chance to indulge it. For unlike the true Jigger, the female of which deposits eggs in the wound she makes, these Harvest-mites have no object of the kind, and when not killed by the hands of those they torment, they soon die victims to their sanguinary appetite." [Illustration: 146. Astoma of the Fly.]