A. D. MICnAEL ON AN UNDESCRIBED 



same Bpecies, and one of the long-eared bat, Plecotus auritus, all 

 from the same locality, but with the like negative result. The 

 Chiroptera above-named were, however, accompanied by six speci- 

 mens of that much rarer member of the order, Ehinolophus hippo- 

 sideros (the lesser horse-shoe bat), and upon three of these the same 

 Myobia was found, although not abundantly. I have thus had the 

 Opportunity of examining seven or eight specimens, some of each 

 B< w but unfortunately not any immature stages. 



The first notice we possess of the singular creature which, up to 

 the present time, constitutes the only known species of Myobia is 

 due to Schrank,* who called it Pediculus minis musculi, and classed 

 it a long way from the position which it has now assumed. The 

 name Myobia (from the Greek yuus, a mouse, and /3iow, Hive) was 

 given by Heyden,f and it is from this name, which has been 

 generally accepted, that that author's most puzzling work on the 

 Acarina will be chiefly remembered. 



C. L. Koch, of RegensburghjJ found the creature, as indeed, he 

 found most others which have any title to be called Acarina ; but 

 that most industrious collector was not equally painstaking in 

 searching prior authorities, and, not recognising that he was 

 dealing with Schrank's species, he gave his supposed discovery 

 a new name, and introduced it to the world as Dermaleichus 

 lemnivs ; thereby putting it in a genus which it certainly did not 

 belong to, although he was a good deal nearer than Schrank had 

 been. From Koch's error arose another by an even better-known 

 zoologist, Gervais,|| who gives Schrank's Pediculus muris musculi us 

 a synonym of Koch's Sarcoptes musculinus, which is really a My copies, 

 instead of a svnonvm of that author's Dermaleichus lemnius, which 

 it actually is. This error was repeated by van der Hoven § and 

 others, until Claparede^ turned his attention to Myobia, and 

 pointed out what the real synonyms were. It is to this beautiful 

 work that we owe the chief part of what we know concerning 



* *' Enumeratio insectorum Austria indigenorum." Augastre Vindeli- 

 corum, 1781, p. 501, t. i., Figs. 5-7. 



t " Versuch einer systemstischen Eintheilung der Acariden." " Oken's 

 Isip,'' 1828, p. 613. 



J " Dentechlanda Crustaceen, Miriapoden und Arachniden." Regensburg, 

 L834-9 (forming Hefts 1 to 40 of Heinrich Schafer's " German Insects "), 

 Sef1 ;;:;, PI. v. 



| " llistoiic natiirclle des insects, Apteres." Walckcnaer, t. iii., p. 265. 



$ " Bandbnch der Zoologie" i., p. 550. 

 • " Studien an Acariden." Zeir. Wigs. Zooh, Band IS (1868), p. 519. 



