[Chorioptes—oval; legs long, thick, all visible; ambulatory suckers very wide, carried at the end of simple, short pedicles.
[Sarcoptes make channels or furrows beneath the epidermis, and in these the female lays her eggs. This form of acariasis is thus difficult to cure. It is the cause of human itch (vide Sarcoptes scabiei).
[Psoroptes do not make sub-epidermic galleries; they live and breed in colonies beneath crusts or scabs formed by the changes they produce in their host’s skin. Sheep scab is a common type of disease produced by Psoroptes. This genus is of little importance as a parasite to man.
[Chorioptes live as Psoroptes; they also do not affect man. Otodectes, Can., affecting cats and dogs, and others occur, but do not affect man as far as we know at present (“Demodicidae und Sarcoptidae,” von Professor G. Canestrini und P. Kramer, Das Tierreich, 1899).—F. V. T.]
Sub-family. Sarcoptinæ.
Genus. Sarcoptes, Latreille.
Sarcoptes scabiei, de Geer, 1778.
Syn.: Acarus scabiei, de Geer, 1778; A. psoricus, Pallas, 1760; A. siro, L., 1778; Sarcoptes exulcerans,? Linn., 1758, Nitsch, 1818; S. hominis, Raspail, 1834, and Hering, 1838; S. galei, Owen, 1853; S. communis, Delaf. et Bourg., 1862; S. scabiei var. hominis, Mégnin, 1880.
