Mites and Stored Food Products

Abstract

THE mites associated with stored food products have received much less attention from biologists than the insect pests found with them. For one thing, students of Acari are few, and mites are often hard to indentify. Also, much of the leading systematic writings on these creatures has been published in Slanguages and in journals that are often very inaccessible. Under the title of "The Mites Associated with Stored Food Products"*, Mrs. A. M. Hughes has written a useful paper that has recently been ssued on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research inaugurated a study of the biology of mites, while the Ministry of Food stationed an officer, Mrs. M. Kendall, at the British Museum (Natural History) to study their systematics. She was followed in this work by Mrs. A. M. Hughes, of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, who Was deputed to work on a part-time basis attached to the Infestation Division of the Ministry of Food. This latter Division, it may be added, was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in September 1947.