acarus

plural acari · plural acarina

1. acarologyAny member of the subclass Acari (aka Acarina): thus, a mite or a tick; specifically, any mite of the genus Acarus.

   The number of Acari found in raw sugar is sometimes exceedingly great, and in no instance is the article quite free from either the insects or their ova (eggs).

   1868, Robert Niccol, The Sugar Insect, "Acarus Sacchari", Found in Raw Sugar, page 4

   3 more examples

   water strongly boiled; wherein the Seeds are extinguished by fire and decoction, and therefore last long and pure without such alteration, affording neither uliginous coats, gnatworms, Acari, hairworms, like crude and common water

   1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 205

   All the time I had been in Ceram I had suffered much from the irritating bites of an invisible acarus, which is worse than mosquitoes, ants, and every other pest, because it is impossible to guard against them.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 86

   2003, G. Leigheb, Mite bites, Andreas D. Katsambas, European Handbook of Dermatological Treatments, Springer, page 342, Besides the acarus of human scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei hominis) (0.3-0.5 mm), many other acari which are parasitic on animals or which infest various plant species, foods, organic waste or soil may occasionally attack man (facultative parasitism vs. obligatory parasitism in the case of scabies).