Zool. Pl. acari. [mod.L. f. Gr. ἄκαρι a mite, f. ἀκαρής minute, too short for cutting, f. ἀ not + καρ- aorist stem of κείρειν to cut.] A genus of minute Arachnida, or spider-like animals, embracing the cheese-mite and its congeners; a mite.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Gard. of Cyrus, iv. 179. [Boiled water] affording neither uliginous coats, gnatworms, Acari, etc., like crude and common water.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., II. § 766. Some of the Acari have the power of spinning webs … one of these is well-known as the Red Spider in hothouses.
1862. Mrs. Speid, Last Years in India, 140. The fowls have been exterminated by small-pox, and by the assaults of a little blue acarus.
