The preparation of stained wholemounts and serial sections of mite embryos

Includes bibliographical references.Includes illustrations.The study of the mites or Acarina has largely been carried on by a few scattered workers in Europe and the United States. Prior to World War I, only two general acarologists in America, Banks (1915) and Bwing (1929), were actively engaged in research with mites. During and since World War II, the number of acarologists has steadily increased. Much of the current work in the field of Acarology is concerned with taxonomic and systematic studies while relatively little information on their general biology appears in the literature. Very little information is available on embryonic development in mites. The most significant reason for this, including the limited number of investigators in the field, is the difficulty of rearing and maintaining stock cultures in the laboratory. Technical problems involved in handling and processing these small arthropods for study are great. Avenues of investigation with lesser difficulties have attracted the majority of workers and consequently acarine embryogenesis is still poorly understood.M.S. (Master of Science