acarus

noun

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

   “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”

   “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).”

   “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.”

   “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).”