ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 165 



New Australian Tick.* — W. W. Frog?att has discovered an in- 

 digenous species in New South Wales of the family Argasidas, Argas 

 lagenopJasUs sp. n. It is common in the clay nests of the Fairy 

 Martin or " Bottle Nest Swallow " FetrocheUdon {Lagenoplastes) arid, 

 under the lining of feathers and grass. It is usually found in the nests 

 containing young birds, remaining for some time after the nestlings have 

 flown. It probably has as wide a range as the host, which is considerable. 



Anatomy of Boophilus annulatus Say.f — S. R. Williams has in- 

 vestigated the structure of the Texas fever cattle-tick, and describes its 

 external form, male and female ; its musculature, mouth-parts, and 

 alimentary canal ; salivary and skin-glands, and so on. As the internal 

 anatomy of Ticks is little known, the following summary of the author's 

 results may be given. There are external porose areas, which are 

 sensory, with sensory cells in the openings. There are numerous multi- 

 cellular glands, with openings in the cuticula. The alimentary canal is 

 a slightly curved tube passing through the brain, and with six large 

 diverticula, which occupy most of the body-cavity in immature females 

 and males. There are triangular deeply-staining cells in the walls of these 

 diverticula, which, it is suggested, function as a " liver." The salivary 

 glands are paired racemose glands opening into the mouth-cavity. The 

 excretory system has a series of diverticula following those of the 

 digestive system ; all are connected with a renal sac. Adult females 

 probably take in little food, and eject nothing from the alimentary canal 

 or the renal system. The female organs differ in every detail from those 

 of Ixodes ricinus. The ovary in Boophilus is a continuous loop from 

 one oviduct to the other, passing backwards around the main alimentary 

 canal. There is a receptaculum seminis, which receives the oviducts 

 and connects with a dorsal uterus. There are paired shell-glands empty- 

 ing into the uterus. Ripe sperms were found in the receptaculum. 

 The male organs are paired testes, vasa deferentia, and a mass of seminal 

 vesicles in a median position. 



Life-history of Fresh-water Mites, J — C. D. Soar communicates 

 some interesting notes. A mass of pink jelly on the stem of Anacharis 

 proved to be the ova of a species of Eulais ; Limnesia histrionica lays its 

 eggs on the under-side of the leaves of the same plant. Larvae occur in 

 very varied habitats, e.g. Iarva3 of Arrheimrus on dragon-flies, of 

 Hydrachna on Gorixa, Dytiscus, etc., of Hydryphantes on a fly, Cceiiia 

 obscicra, which breeds in aquatic plants, of Atax crassipes in Spongilla. 

 Apart from forms which live inside mussels, the nymphs are never 

 parasitic. In some cases, e.g. Hydrachna, the nymph stage lasts for 

 twelve months. There seems to be considerable variety in the mode of 

 transition from the nymph stage to the adult stage. 



Gibocellum sudeticum.§ — W. Sorensen, in a lively paper entitled "Un 

 animal fabuleux des temps modernes," maintains that the remarkable 



* Proc. Linu. Soc. New South Wales, xxxi. (1906) p. 408. 



+ Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xxxii. No. 8 (1905) pp. 313-34 (5 pis., 3 figs.). 



X Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, 1906, pp. 859-70 (5 pis. and 2 tigs.). 



§ Oversigt k. Dauke videnk. Selskabs Porh., 1906, pp. 197-232 (8 figs.). 



