SCOTTISH ALPINE TARDIGRADA 29 



D/phascon alpinism, n. sp. (Figs, i to 3). 



Specific characters. Whitish, narrow, of nearly equal width 

 throughout. Teeth curved, divergent ; gullet slender, very long. 

 Pharynx broad, oval, or thromboid, short diameter to long as 

 8 to 1 1 ; 3 rods in each row increasing both in length and 

 thickness from first to third. The claws, a larger and a 

 smaller pair, one claw of each pair longer and with a supple- 

 mentary point. The claws are thicker than in the other 

 species, the larger claw of the smaller pair especially. Length 

 over all 250 p.. 



The general form is most like D. spitzbergense, Richters (5), 

 and the pharynx is of about the same relative length and 

 breadth. The resemblance goes no farther. D. spitzbergense 

 has a thicker, shorter gullet, longer and thinner claws, and the 

 arrangement of rods in the pharynx quite different. D. 

 angustatum, Murray (1), has quite a different form, broadest at 

 third legs and tapering to a kind of snout, nearly straight 

 slightly divergent teeth, thick gullet, narrow pharynx with a 

 different arrangement of rods. 



The other three species agree with D. alpinum in having a 

 slender gullet, but all have longer claws and differ in many 

 points. D. chilense (3) has nearly circular pharynx and more 

 numerous rods, not increasing in size. D. bidlatum (2) has 

 papillose and embossed skin, rounder pharynx and quite 

 different rods. D. scoticum (2) is at once distinguished by the 

 narrow pharynx and slender straight parallel rods. 



The species is thus seen to differ conspicuously from all 

 the previously described species in the genus, the arrangement 

 of rods in the pharnyx and the characters of the claws being 

 enough to mark it as a good species. 



In moss from the cairn on Ben Lawers, very abundant, 

 July 1905. On a second visit in September of the same year, 

 not an example could be found. 



It is of great interest that the same animal, identical in all 

 respects, has been found in abundance in moss brought by the 

 Scottish Antarctic Expedition from the South Orkneys, and 

 kindly given to me by Mr. R. N. Rudmose Brown. 



Diphascon scoticum, Murray (2). -This species, apparently the 

 commonest of the genus in Scotland, was plentiful in the 

 September collection. The peculiar lenticular bodies (nuclei ?) 

 in the stomach wall are characteristic for the species. From 

 the Ben Lawers examples I ascertained a feature overlooked in 

 the original description, viz., that the longer claws of each pair 

 have very fine supplementary points. This character, general 

 or universal in Macrobiotus, appears to be general also in this 

 genus, and is even found in the long single claws of Milnesiinn. 



