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CONTRIBUTIONS TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE 



HYDRAGHNIDAE. 



By the late W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., F.L.S. 



So long ago as the year 1860 my attention was attracted to that 

 comparatively little -studied group of the Arachnida known as the 

 Hydrachnidae or Water-mites. In the summer of that and the 

 following year I collected and examined upwards of fifty varieties, 

 in many cases worked out their life histories,t and had already 

 formulated what appeared to me to be a more natural and 

 convenient system of classification for the same than had 

 hitherto obtained. The pressing claims upon my notice from 

 that date forward of other biological subjects obliged me for a 

 while to forego my study of the group, and it is only within 

 the last few months that the opportunity has been afforded 

 me of renewing and extending these earlier experiences. 

 Fortunately the extensive series of microscopical preparations 

 made by me of the majority of species originally collected has 

 been but little impaired by the lapse of time, thirteen or 

 fourteen years, that has intervened since the date of their cap- 

 ture and preservation; and this preserved series, in which not 



* The Club is much indebted to Mr. S. Hirst, of the British Museum 

 (Natural History), for his kindness in permitting the publication for the 

 first time of his late uncle's contribution to the study of the Hydrachnidae. 

 He writes to say that the paper was probably prepared for publication 

 some time during 1883-4. This is the last date that is mentioned in 

 the rough notes on Hydrachnids. It was in the latter year that Mr. 

 Saville-Kent left England for a long residence in Tasmania and Australia. 

 The folio volume The Great Barrier B.eef of Australia, published in 1893, 

 embodies the results of his long stay in Australia. [Ed.] 



f The life-histories of water-mites are very little known. What Mr. 

 Saville-Kent did was to succeed in breeding the larvae from the adults 

 a very valuable addition to our knowledge of water-mites ; but the parasitic 

 stage of the larvae is more important still, and of that we know very 

 little and without such knowledge we cannot say we know their life- 

 history. [C.D.S.] 



