Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 29 



its margins are sinuated and notched at the emission of the legs, 

 and the excavations at those parts are still more strongly marked 

 on the under surface. Beneath (fig. 7) there is a transverse 

 sulcus opposite the origin of the third pair of legs, but bent for- 

 ward on each side to the second pair ; a longitudinal bent sulcus 

 exists on each side, whose limits are undefined. The vulva and 

 anus are both on the under surface, the latter small and situated 

 behind the former, which is large and oval, and both are enclosed 

 in an oval area. 



The rostrum (fig. 8) is a globose bulb, drawn out to a more 

 lengthened point than in the former species, its tip extending to 

 the third joint of the palpi. The palpi (fig. 9) are usually pro- 

 jected parallel to the rostrum, but are capable of divergence ; 

 the joints have nearly the same relation to each other as in 

 H. rhodostigma ; but the third bears a stout spur-like spine on 

 its inner face ; and the fourth, which is stout at the base, much 

 curved inward and acute, is armed with another spine, but 

 longer and more slender, which likewise points inward and 

 forward. 



The legs (fig. 6) are consimilar, except in length; the first 

 and second being to the length of the body as 4^ to 5|, the 

 third and fourth as 6| to 5 J ; hence the hind pairs are just half 

 as long again as the fore pairs. The coxae of the first and second 

 originate close together, but the others are remote from them 

 and from each other. The joints are nearly cylindrical, but di- 

 minish slightly to the last, which bears two very moveable sickle- 

 shaped ungues. Each unguis (PI. III. fig. 10) has an accessory 

 piece set on the under side of its extremity, and is strongly pec- 

 tinated all along its concave edge. Hence the name, from /cret?, 

 a comb, and ttou?, a foot. 



No eyes were visible, unless a black speck on each side of the 

 bulb of the rostrum was an eye, which I much doubt, from the 

 position of the conspicuous organs of vision in the former spe- 

 cies. Found (a single specimen) with the preceding. 



Whether either of these species has been described before I 

 cannot certainly say. Fabricius (Spec. Insect, ii. 491; ed. Hamb. 

 1781) has included two Norwegian marine Mites, Acarus zostera 

 and A. fucorum, which he briefly describes; — the former as 

 " A. subrotundus, albidus, abdomine rufo •'' the latter as ''A. pal- 

 lidus, lineis duabus flexuosis nigris, pedibus posticis brevissimis 

 incurvis.^' Meagre as these characters are, they are sufficient to 

 show that neither of my species was intended. 



M. Paul Gervais in his ' Apteres ' (iii. 253) mentions that 

 M. Dujardin had described a marine Oribates, in the ' Journ. de 

 PInstitut' for 1842; but he has not given the characters, and I 



