105 



TWO NEW BRITISH WATER- MITES. 



By C. D. Soar, F.R.M.S. 



{Read June \ltli. 1904.) 



When collecting in North Wales with Mr. Scourfield in 



» 



September, 1896, I found a small orange-coloured crawling 

 Hydraclmid in some moss taken from a little trickling stream in 

 Cwm Glas, Snowdon. It was quite unlike any other mite I had 

 previously seen. Nevertheless I put it on one side, thinking I 

 should come across it again, or find it had been already recorded 

 by some other writer on the Continent. It was, however, not as 

 I thought. I have never found another, neither have I dis- 

 covered any record from abroad. I also sent a tracing and 

 description to one of the well-known writers on Water-mites in 

 Germany, and he did not know the creature, but suggested it was 

 not only a new species, but required a new genus. I propose, 

 "therefore, to describe it as follows : — 



Pseudofeltria, n. g. 



The characteristics of this genus are : body, soft skinned ; 

 epimera in four groups, but pushed up close together ; legs 

 without swimming hairs ; claws to all feet ; genital field large, 

 with wing-shaped plates and numerous acetabula on each 

 plate ; palpus with a small peg on the inner edge of fourth 

 segment at the joint close to fifth segment. 



All these characters we find in the genus Feltria, except that 

 in Feltria we have a chitinous dorsal plate, small or large in 

 different species, and the palpus is without the peg mentioned 

 above. As this mite possesses all the characters of Feltria 

 •except the two points to which I have just drawn attention, I 

 propose to call this genus Pseudofeltria. 



Pseudofeltria scourfeldi, n. sp. 

 Fig. 1. 



The measurements are : length, 056 mm. ; breadth. 046 ; 

 palpus, 0-24; first leg, 0'40 ; fourth leg, 0'68. The first, 

 second, and third pairs of legs are very strong and thick, 



