HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



refers to the Hydrachnidx or water mites, that I long 

 since commenced the study of this interesting little 

 group and collected within the course of two 

 summers in the neighbourhood of London alone 

 upwards of fifty distinct varieties. I am now working 

 at the subject again with the view to a monograph 

 of the British species, and shall hence be indebted to 

 Mr. Ollard or any other subscribers to Scien'CE- 

 Gossip for new material or notices of new localities 

 of our indigenous types. For the purpose ol study, 

 the water mites, or swimming mites, as they may be 

 more appropriately called, all the species being 

 especially adapted for a natatory existence, through 

 the development on their legs of long swimming hairs, 

 maybe conveniently kept in small glass bottles of one 

 and two ounce capacity, a bottle being relegated to each 

 species and a small fragment of water plant such as 

 Ranunculus or Fontinalis, being added for the little 

 animals to rest and deposit their eggs upon. Small 

 entomostraca, daphnias, or cyprids should be pro- 

 vided as food every few days, the water mites, like 

 their congeners the true spiders, being eminently 

 predatory in their habits and requiring a constant 

 supply of living prey. It is highly interesting to 

 observe the way in which many of the water mites 

 halting in their mid career pounce down upon their 

 quarry and bear it off to dinner at leisure, much after 

 the manner in which a hawk secures its prey. A 

 small label should be affixed to each bottle indicating 

 the locality and date of capture, a number being 

 added in Heu of the specific name should this be 

 undetermined, space being left for supplementary 

 notes concerning the date of deposition and hatching 

 of the ova of any subsequent metamorphoses. In 

 addition to their beauty as living objects the water 

 mites will be found admirably adapted for permanent 

 preservation, and when suitably mounted and exhibited 

 with the assistance of the parabolic illuminator, they 

 constitute an important and attractive accession to the 

 collector's cabinet. The adult mites may be killed 

 instantaneously with their legs extended as in life by 

 momentary immersion in scalding water, and should 

 be then mounted in a cell of suitable depth in either 

 camphor water or a weak solution of, say one of spirit 

 to four or five of water. Specimens thus preserved 

 by the writer so long as fourteen years ago still retain 

 their pristine form and brilliancy, the scarlets, 

 browns, greens and yellows, chiefly characteristic of 

 this group, being as bright as on the day on which 

 they were mounted. Both the ova and hexapod 

 larvae may be preserved in the same simple medium. 

 For working out the more minute details of the 

 mandibles, palpi, and other appendages, examples 

 should be dissected or crushed and mounted in either 

 fluid or balsam.— W. Seville Kent. 



Provincial Societies.— The third part, vol. iii. 

 (new series) of the " Proceedings of the Bristol 

 Naturalists' Society," is to hand, containing some 



very important papers, out of which we select the 

 following for special notice : •' The Age of the Wye," 

 byChas. Richardson ; "Catalogueof the Lepidoptera 

 of the Bristol District," by A. E. Hudd ; " Fungi of 

 the Bristol District," byC. Bucknall. The April 

 and May numbers of the '* Transactions of the Hert- 

 fordshire Natural History Society," contain (besides 

 table of contents, &c.). Reports of the Field Meetings 

 for 1880, and of the Proceedings of the Society, from 

 October 1880 to April 1881. We have received a 

 copy of Mr. F. E. Sawyer's paper (read before the 

 Brighton and Sussex Natural History Society) on 

 " Sussex Fish and Fisheries," giving a detailed 

 catalogue of the fishes found on the coast, history of 

 the fisheries, archaeological notes on ditto, folk lore 

 of fishes, &c., altogether a very valuable paper. The 

 Annual Report of the " North Staffordshire 

 Naturalists' Field Club " for 1881 contains accounts 

 of natural history and archaeological excursions to 

 various parts of the country, under excellent leader- 

 ship, and papers by Dr. McAldowie, C. L. W^ragge, 

 C. Lynam, R. Garner, F. M. Sexton, and the 

 annual address of the President, Mr. Earl. The 

 " Proceedings of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field 

 Club" for i88i-2 contains the address of the Presi- 

 dent (the Rev. H. H. Higgens) " Animal adorn- 

 ments," accounts of the excursions (which are always 

 numerous and well attended), and of the evening 

 meetings. The seventy-fourth report of the East 

 Kent Natural History Society contains excellent 

 abstracts of papers by Capt. McDakin, G. H. Nelson, 

 Mr. J. FuUagar, Dr. Boddy, Mr. S. Saunders, &c. 

 The Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian 

 Society is now well and soundly established, thanks 

 very largely to its honorary secretary, Mr. P. C. 

 Kermode. The excursions are well reported, and 

 are made to various localities for which this lovely 

 little island is celebrated. A paper was i-ecently 

 read by Mr. Robert Garner, F.L.S., of Stoke-on- 

 Trent, during one of these excursions, in which he 

 suggested that the tailless Manx cat might be 

 considered a rock variety, possibly due to the action 

 of the principle of economy of material. 



A Rare Bee. — All entomologists will be glad to 

 hear that Mr. Fred. Enock has been successful in 

 capturing both males and females of the rarest of 

 British bees, viz., Macropis labiata. The first (a 

 male) was observed July 27, flying along the banks 

 of the Basingstoke Canal, in the neighbourhood of 

 Woking Station, and on the 29th, in exactly the 

 same spot, four males were caught flying very rapidly. 

 The next one to appear was a lovely female, this as 

 quickly disappeared into Mr. Enock's net. We find 

 the following remarks respecting Macropis labiata in 

 Mr. Fred. Smith's "Bees of Great Britain." "Of 

 this rare insect only three British collections possess 

 specimens, and these are all males ; that in the 

 British Museum was probably the first captured in 



