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Atax Taverneri sp. nov. ? 



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



{Reai March Uth, 1899.) 



Plate 12. 



At the beginning of August last year Mr. Henry Taverner, 

 a member of the Club, while collecting in Highams Park, took 

 a number of specimens of a species of Atax, which he kindly 

 handed to me for examination. It proved to be one I had not 

 before met with. 



To the best of my belief I have descriptions and figures of all 

 the known species of this genus, about thirty-four in all if we 

 include the sub-genus Cochleophorus Piersig., in which some of 

 these have now been placed, but with none of these will the mite 

 submitted to your notice this evening quite agree. It may 

 resemble some in the palpi, but differs in the genital area ; or it 

 may agree with others in the genital plates but be different in 

 the palpi. The nearest relation I can find to it is Atax aculeatus 

 Koenike. The general description given of this mite in the 

 " Zoologischer Anzeiger " agrees very well with mine, except in 

 two very important points: viz., A. aculeatus has three discs on 

 the upper plate of the female, and it is parasitic in the fresh- 

 water mussel, in the same way as A. ypsilophorus Bonz., whereas 

 the present one has only two discs on the upper plate of the 

 female, and it is a free swimmer in the same way as Atax crassijjes 

 Miiller. This being the case, I have very good reasons for believing 

 it to be a hitherto unrecorded species. 



Dimensions : — 



JouRN. Q. M. C, Series II.— No. 45. 



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