Some South African Tardigrada. By t7. Murray. 519 



plates increases the resemblance. Notwithstanding all those points 

 of agreement, E. africanus is not even in the same section of the 

 genus, for segments v. and vi. are completely fused, without a trace 

 of the line of junction. 



The dots on the plates look like pits. The little spines on the 

 paired plates are so near the median line that they usually overlap, 

 and look like pairs of scissors. 



The head setffi or horns (a, Eichters) are of moderate length, and 

 curved forward and inward in the normal fashion. 



Whether there are barbs on the inner claws I have been unable 

 to see, owing to the position of the legs in the few examples 

 studied. 



Three examples seen, and none with eggs. 



E. pcrarmatus sp. n., plate XVII. figs. 4a to 4c. 



Specific Characters. — Size, moderate. Plates, 9: 2 median, 2 pairs, 

 vi. trilobate. Pattern of two kinds, coarse dots, regularly arranged, 

 and very tine pellucid dots. Lateral processes, a a short curved 

 seta, h, c, and d spicules, e a long curved spine or seta. Dorsal 

 processes, on each side a spicule on each plate of the second pair, 

 above d. Spicules on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd legs. Fringe of longish 

 obtuse processes on the 4th leg. Inner claws with small barbs. 



Length, 260 yu,. Eggs oval, red, 66 jx long. Larva, with two 

 claws, length 96 yu,. The larva has all the processes of the adult, 

 but the lateral seta e is shorter. The paired plates have, along the 

 posterior border, a broad plain marginal band, without dots. 



Among the external characters of Tardigrada there is nothing 

 so puzzling as the nature of the dots on the plates, usually referred to 

 as granulation. Plate (7, p. 294) regards those dots as " dimples,'^ 

 and in my experience they also most commonly appear as depres- 

 sions, but there is no doubt that the nature of the surface-texture 

 varies in different species. Plate (7, p. 294) supposes that Doyere 

 regarded the dots as really papilla3, since he named a species 

 E. granulatus, but I would suppose that his naming one species 

 thus might be to emphasise a contrast between it and the others. 

 Certainly a species closely agreeing with E. granulatus Doy. (1) 

 is the only one in which I have seen granules, unmistakable and 

 large. Some others, as E. arctoniys, I believe to be granular, but 

 the condition is less obvious. 



In no species are the dots so puzzling as in E. perarmatus. 

 The larger dots, which are arranged in regular rows, appear over 

 the general surface of all the plates as pits, but the rows can be 

 traced without interruption from the centre of the lumbar plate 

 (v. and vi.) to the posterior Ijorder of the middle lobe (tail-piece), 

 and there they are certainly papillae. On the second median plate. 



